^Iff   o»    ^ 


ADDITIONAL  SPEECHES, 

ADDRESSES, 


OCCASIONAL    SERMONS, 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 


THEODORE    PARKER, 

MINISTER   OF   THE   TWENTY-EIGHTH  CONGREGATIONAL    SOCIETY 


VOX  U  ME  1. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,   BROWN  AND   COMPANY. 

185  5. 


39-43855 

Entered  accordinj;  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S55,  Ijy 
THEODORE   PAKlvKR, 

In  the  Clerk's  OiHce  of  the  District  Court  of  tlie  District  of  JIassacliusetts. 


C  A  51  ];  K  I  D  G  E  : 
ALLEX   AND    1  AIINIIAJI,    rillXTEKS. 


1 


in 

iT) 


C3 


TO 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS, 

■\VIIOSi:      JrARVELLOUS      ELOQUENCE     IS      ONLY     SL'EPASSED     BY     THE 

HUMANITY      WHICH      WIELDS      THAT      FIERY      SAVORD, 

WROUGHT      OF     JUSTICE      AND      BEAUTY, 

tiies!e  volumes  are  dedicated 

BY     HIS     FRIEND     AND     NEIGHBOR, 

THEODORE  PARKER. 


PREFACE. 


Several  years  ago  I  began  to  write  a  large  work  on  the 
"  Historical  Development  of  Religion  in  the  various  Races 
of  Mankind,"  hoping  to  publish  the  first  volume  long  before 
this  time.  But  during  the  last  five  years,  my  attention  has 
been  mainly  directed  to  quite  different  pursuits,  less  genial 
to  my  nature  and  more  foreign  to  my  culture :  events  of  the 
saddest  character  and  most  dangerous  tendency  have  forced 
other  and  indispensable  duties  upon  me.  For  the  assaults 
on  the  natural  Rights  of  man  have  been  so  continuous,  made 
with  such  vigor,  and  so  often  successful,  and  the  consequent 
demand  of  resistance  thereto,  on  the  part  of  all  friends  of 
Humanity  so  urgent,  that  I  have  been  forced  to  defer  the 
welcome  toil  of  converting  the  Facts  of  past  History  into 
Ideas  of  present  Consciousness,  and  therewith  helping  to 
build  up  nobler  Institutions  for  the  future.  Yes,  the  ene- 
mies of  American  liberty  have  so  far  prevailed,  that  within 
a  few  years,  nnder  federal  enactments,  Slavery  has  been 
spread  over  a  once  free  territoi-y  more  than  twice  as  large 
as  the  original  colonies  at  the  Revolution  ;  and  in  the  "  Free 
States  "  themselves  the  great  Republican  Safeguards  of  Lib- 


VI  PREFACE. 

erty  have  been  captured  by  the  foes  —  who  have  ah-eady 
toi-n  down  the  Habeas  Corpus  and  are  now  seekinGj  to  de- 
stroy the  Trial  by  Jury.  "With  the  approbation  of  many  of 
the  controlhng  men  of  this  town  —  '•  literary,"  political,  ju- 
dicial, commercial,  and  ecclesiastical, — innocent  men  have 
been  seized,  and  without  any  trial  before  a  "judicial  power,'' 
in  violation  of  "  due  Process  of  Law,"  sent  into  eternal 
bondage  amid  the  gratulations  of  Christian  ininisters,  and 
the  applause  of  delighted  officials.  While  I  write,  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  continues  the  staunch 
defender  of  Slavery,  supporting  its  most  aggressive  acts  on 
the  soil  of  our  Commonwealth ;  and  the  Probate  Judge  of 
this  county  —  the  legal  guardian  of  Widows  and  Orphans  — 
is  also  a  ■'legal*'  kidna[)[)er,  ^■oluntaril3^  and  ostentatiously 
holding  an  office  which,  as  he  publicly  maintains,  "  requires  " 
him  to  send  blameless  men  into  Slavery  fore^■el•. 

In  my  own  Parish  I  proudly  number  several  colored  fam- 
ilies, and  have  also  numerous  other  acquaintances  and 
friends  among  the  colored  citizens  of  Boston,  some  of  them 
fugitives  from  Slavery,  their  lil»erty,  dearer  than  life  to 
them,  is  in  continual  peril.  Any  day,  or  night,  by  some 
miscreant,  Avith  no  opportunity  fur  defence,  tliey  may  be 
sworn  off  into  eternal  bondage  before  some  willing  member 
of  that  family  of  kidna^jping  Commissioners  whose  Nature 
seems  in  preiistablished  harmony  with  that  official  function 
of  stealing  and  enslaving  innocent  men. 

Besides,  some  years  ago,  presently  after  the  passage  of. 
the  fugitive  slave  bill,  and  the  first  kidnapping  in  Boston, 
consequent  thereon,  my  fellow-citizens  appointed  me  "  Min- 
ister at  large  for  Fugitive  SIa\es:"  I  could  not  decline  the 
honorable  office  at  such  a  time  ;  nay,  I   sought  its   duties 


PREFACE.  VU 

well  knowing  their  peril.  IIow  often  must  I  protect  my 
own  parishioners  from  the  clutch  of  men  seeking  to  en:?lave 
them !  What  scorn  has  been  visited  on  me  in  consequence ! 
Four  years  ago,  a  wealthy  and  prominent  merchant  of  Bos- 
ton declared  to  his  fellows  that  if  any  men  would  assassinate 
Mr.  Phillips  and  myself,  and  he  were  called  as  a  Grand 
Juror  to  i)ass  upon  the  act,  he  should  "declare  it  a  justifia- 
ble homicide  ! " 

In  such  a  time  no  man's  liberty  is  safe  ;  —  nay,  the  nation 
itself  is  brought  into  imminent  peril,  into  worse  dangers  than 
War  ever  thundered  upon  our  fathers'  honored  heads.  In 
the  last  five  years,  it  has  often  seemed  as  if  our  Ivepublican 
Ship  must  perish,  and  this  Democracy,  like  so  many  others, 
be  whelmed  uiider  in  the  great  deep  of  Despotism  which  has 
successively  swallowed  down  so  many  libei'al-mindcd  and 
fair  States.  But  such  is  my  certainty  of  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  the  great  Trutlis  now  fluttering  about  the  consciousness 
of  this  generation,  and  such  my  conlidencc  in  the  mass  of 
the  American  Peo[)le  in  the  Northern  Stales,  that  I  cannot 
yet  give  over  my  fairest,  deai'est  earthly  hope  —  womanly 
and  romantic  thougli  it  seems.  Else  I  should  long  since 
have  left  that  little  company  of  noble  men  and  women 
who  toil  for  the  liberation  of  America,  and  are  hitherto 
honored  chieHy  with  the  scorn  of  the  controlling  classes  in 
this  town;  and  should  have  returned  from  public  Avrangling 
to  silent  study  —  Scicnci',  rhiloso[ihy.  Letters.  But  with 
such  trust  in  the  American  People,  I  have  devoted  Avhat 
powers  I  possess  to  the  practical  duties  of  the  day :  yet  hop- 
ing in  better  times  to  see  my  cherished  buil  bloom  into  some 
Avell-[)ro[)ortioued  Hower.  In  the  last  lew  years  I  could 
work  at  my  i'avorite  task  only  by  snatches  —  learn  a  few 


VIU  PKEFACE. 

languages,  collect  books,  and  gather  facts  therefrom,  or  in 
the  swift  walks  of  a  minister's  practical  business,  in  nocturnal 
railroad  journeys,  or  other  sleepless  nights  in  stranger's 
houses,  meditate  the  plan  of  the  intended  work.  How  long 
this  will  continue  I  know  not,  —  only  fear. 

These  two  volumes  contain  some  of  the  published  results 
of  those  labors  of  the  last  few  years.  Some  of  the  speeches 
were  purely  extemporaneous  ;  for  some  others  I  had  but  the 
briefest  time  for  composition.  All  but  the  opening  article  of 
each  volume  are  reprinted  from  phonographic  reports  taken 
by  my  friends,  —  whose  kindness  moves  them  thus  to  da- 
guerreotype all  my  Sunday  sermons.  The  brief  speech 
before  the  Ministerial  Conference  I  wrote  down  a  few  days 
after  its  delivery,  and  have  marked  with  brackets  [  ]  the 
words  since  added :  the  "  Thoughts  on  the  Progress  of  Amer- 
ica," was  never  delivered,  —  for  the  terrible  events  of  that 
period  kept  me  in  the  court  house  during  the  session  of  the 
Convention.  If  any  reader  will  compare  the  date  of  any 
Sermon  or  Speech,  in  these  volumes  with  that  of  the  occa- 
sion thereof,  he  will  see  that  often  very  little  time  was  left 
for  the  nicety  of  a  work  of  art.  But  there  was  no  special 
reason  why  the  Sermon  of  Old  Age,  should  have  been  de- 
livered at  the  time  it  was  preached,  having  no  reference  to 
any  special  occasion.  I  put  it  at  the  end  of  the  last  vol- 
ume as  a  fitting  termination  of  the  book,  as  one  day  it  may 
be  of  the  reader's,  or  the  writer's  life. 

Perhaps  I  ought  also  to  say  that,  pressed  with  other 
duties,  I  write  this  Preface  in  the  presence  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States,  befox-e  which  I  am  now  ar- 
raigned as  a  Malefactor,  charged   with  a  "  Misdemeanor," 


PREFACE.  IX 

committed  by  speaking,  in  Faneuil  Hall  and  elsewhere,  a 
few  words  against  the  kidnapping  of  my  fellow-citizens  of 
Boston,  some  of  them  also  my  own  parishioners ;  and  that 
the  same  man  who  so  zealously  supported  the  fugitive 
slave  bill,  and  labored  by  its  instrumentality  to  enslave 
men,  is  at  this  moment  on  the  Bench  to  try  me  for  resist- 
ing with  a  word  the  officer  who  sought  to  reduce  a  Bos- 
ton man  to  the  condition  of  a  Virginia  Slave. 

Theodore  Parker. 

Boston,  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  Room, 
April  3,  1855. 


CONTENTS    OF    VOL.    I. 


PARE 

Speech    at    the    Mixistekial   Coxferexce    ix   Bostox, 

May  29,  1851 1 

II. 

The  Boston  KiDXArrixo.  A  Discourse  to  commemo- 
rate THE  ReXDITIOX  OF  ThOMAS  SlMS,  DELIVERED 
OX  THE  AXXIVERSARY  THEREOF,  Al'RIL  12,  1852,    BEFORE 

THE  Committee  of  Vigilaxce,  at  the  Melodesx,  in 
Boston 17 

III. 

The  Aspect  of  Freedom  in  America.  A  Speech  at 
the  Mass  Anti-Slavery  Celeuration  of  Indepen- 
dence AT  Abington,  July  5,  1852 107 

IV. 
Discourse  occasioned  by  the  Death  op  Daniel  Web- 
ster, preached  at  the    Melodeon  on   Sunday,    Oc- 
tober 31,  1852     ^     .         .         .131 


Xir  CONTENTS. 

V. 

The  Nebeaska  Question.  Some  Thoughts  on  the 
New  Assault  upon  Freedom  in  America,  and  the 
General  State  of  the  Country  in  relation  there- 
unto, SET  forth  in  a  Discourse  preached  at  the 
Music  Hall,  in  Boston,  on  Sunday,  February  12, 
1854 295 

VI. 

An  Address  on  the  Condition  of  America,  before 
the  New  York  City  Anti-Slavery  Society,  at  its 
First  Anniversary,  held  at  the  Broadway  Taber- 
nacle, May  12,  1854 381 


SPEECH 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE 


BOSTON,    MAY    29,    1851 


VOL.    I. 


SPEECH. 


OCCASION    OF    THE    SPEECH. 

The  subject  of  debate  was  "  The  Duty  of  Minis- 
ters under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law."  This  had 
been  brought  up,  by  Rev.  Mr.  May  of  Syracuse,  at 
a  "  Business  Meeting "  of  the  American  Unitarian 
Association,  and  was  refused  a  hearing.  It  was 
again  brought  forward  at  the  meeting  of  the  Minis- 
terial Conference  on  Wednesday.  The  Conference 
adjourned  to  Thursday  morning,  at  nine  o'clock. 

On  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  afternoons,  a  good 
deal  was  done  to  prevent  the  matter  from  being  dis- 
cussed at  all ;  and  done,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  dis- 
ingenuous and  unfair  manner.  And  on  Thursday 
morning  much  time  was  consumed  in  mere  trifles, 
apparently  with  the  intention  of  wearing  away  the 
few  hours  which  would  otherwise  be  occupied  in 
discussing  the  matter  at  issue,  before  the  Conference. 


4  SPEECH   AT   THE 

At  length  the  question  was  reached,  and  the  debate 
began. 

Several  persons  spoke.  Mr.  Pierpont  made  a 
speech,  able  and  characteristic,  in  which  he  declared 
that  the  Fugitive  Slave  BUI  lacked  all  the  essentials 
of  a  law ;  that  it  had  no  claim  to  obedience ;  and 
that  it  could  not  be  administered  with  a  pure  heart 
or  unsullied  ermine. 

Several  others  made  addresses.  Rev.  IVIr.  Osgood 
of  New  York  defended  his  ministerial  predecessor, 
Rev.  Dr.  Dewey,  —  making  two  points. 

1.  Dr.  Dewey's  conduct  had  been  misrepresented ; 
he  had  never  said  that  he  would  send  his  own 
Mother  into  slavery  to  preserve  the  Union ;  it  was 
only  his  <Sow,  or  Brother.  [JVIr.  Parker  remarked  that 
the  Principle  was  the  same  in  all  three  cases,  there 
was  only  a  diversity  of  Measure.] 

2.  Dr.  Dewey's  motives  had  been  misrepresented. 
He  had  conversed  with  Dr.  Dewey ;  and  Dr.  Dewey 
felt  very  bad ;  was  much  afflicted  —  even  to  weeping, 
at  the  misrepresentations  made  of  him.  He  had 
not  been  understood.  Dr.  Dewey  met  Dr.  Furness 
in  the  street,  [Dr.  Furness  had  most  manfully 
preached  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  there- 
by drawn  upon  himself  much  odium  in  Philadelphia, 
and  the  indignation  of  some  of  his  clerical  brethren 
elsewhere,]  and  said,  "Brother  Furness  —  you  have 
taken  the  easy  road  to  duty.     It  is  for  me  to  take 


MINISTERIAL   CONFEREXCE.  O 

the  hard  and  dijficuH  way  !  I  wish  it  could  be  oth- 
erwise. But  I  feared  the  dissolution  of  the  Union !  " 
etc.  etc. 

Mr.  Osgood  then  proceeded  to  censure  "  one  of 
this  Conference,"  [Mi*.  Parker,]  for  the  manner  in 
which  he  had  preached  on  this  matter  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law.  "  It  was  very  bad ;  it  was  un- 
just I "  etc. 

Rev.  Dr.  Gannett  spoke  at  some  length. 

1.  He  said  the  brethren  had  laughed,  and  shown 
an  indecorum  that  was  painful ;  it  was  unpardona- 
ble. [The  chairman.  Rev.  Dr.  Farley  of  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  thought  otherwise.] 

2.  He  criticized  severely  the  statement  of  Rev.  IVIr. 
Pierpont  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  "  could  not 
be  administered  with  a  pure  heart  or  unsullied  er- 
mine." [IVIi-.  Pierpont  affirmed  it  anew,  and  briefly 
defended  the  statement.  Mi*.  Gannett  still  appeared 
dissatisfied.]  His  parishioner,  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis, 
had  the  most  honorable  motives  for  attempting  to 
execute  the  law. 

3.  He  (Dr.  Gannett)  was  in  a  minority,  and  the 
majority  had  no  right  to  think  that  he  was  not  as 
honest  in  his  opinion  as  the  rest. 

4.  Here  Dr.  Gannett  made  two  points  in  de- 
fence of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  of  making  and 
obeying  it. 

(1.)  If  we  did  not  obey  it  the  disobedience  would 


b  SPEECH  AT   THE 

lead  to  the  violation  of  all  Law.  There  were  two 
things  —  Law  without  Liberty  ;  and  Liberty  without 
Law.  Law  without  Liberty  ^vas  only  despotism ; 
Liberty  without  Law  only  license.  Law  without 
Liberty  was  the  better  of  the  two.  If  we  began  by 
disobeying  any  one  law,  we  should  come  to  violating 
all  laws. 

(2.)  We  must  obey  it  to  preserve  the  Union  :  with- 
out the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  Union  would  have 
been  dissolved ;  if  it  were  not  obeyed  it  would  also 
be  dissolved,  and  then  he  did  not  know  what  would 
become  of  the  cause  of  Human  Freedom,  and  Hu- 
man Rights. 

Then  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis  of  Charlestown  spoke. 
He  would  not  have  the  Conference  pass  any  resolu- 
tions ;  he  stood  on  the  first  Principles  of  Congrega- 
tionalism, —  that  the  minister  was  not  responsible  to 
his  brothers,  but  to  himself  and  his  God.  So  the 
brethren  have  no  right  to  come  here  and  discuss  and 
condemn  the  opinions  or  the  conduct  of  a  fellow 
minister.  We  cannot  bind  one  another;  we  have 
no  right  to  criticize  and  condemn. 

Next  he  declared  his  hatred  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill.  If  we  must  either  keep  it  or  lose  the  Union, 
he  said,  "  Perish  the  Union."  He  had  always  said 
so,  and  preached  so. 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE.  7 

After  Mr.  Ellis,  Mr.  Parker  also  spoke  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  am  one  of 
those  that  laughed  with  the  rest,  and  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  Dr.  Gannett.  It  was  not  from  light- 
ness however ;  I  think  no  one  will  accuse  me  of  that. 
I  am  earnest  enough ;  so  much  so  as  to  be  grim. 
Still  it  is  natural  even  for  a  grim  man  to  laugh  some- 
times; and  in  times  like  these  I  am  glad  we  can 
laugh. 

I  am  glad  my  friend,  Mr.  Ellis,  said  the  brethren 
had  no  right  here  to  criticize  and  condemn  the  opin- 
ions of  one  of  their  members:  but  I  wish  he  and 
they  had  come  to  this  opinion  ten  years  ago.  I 
should  have  been  a  gainer  by  it ;  for  this  is  the  first 
time  for  nine  years  that  I  have  attended  this  Confer- 
ence without  hearing  something  which  seemed  said 
with  the  intention  of  insulting  me.  I  will  not  say 
I  should  have  been  in  general  a  happier  man  if  Mr. 
Ellis's  advice  had  been  followed ;  nay  if  he  had 
always  followed  it  himself;  but  I  should  have  sat  with 
a  little  more  comfort  in  this  body  if  they  had  thought 
I  was  not  responsible  to  them  for  my  opinions. 

Lam  glad  also  to  hear  Dr.  Gannett  say  we  have 
no  right  to  attribute  improper  motives  to  any  one 
who  differs  from  us  in  opinion.  It  was  rather  gra- 
tuitous, however  ;  no  man  has  done  it  here  to-day. 
But  it  is  true,  no  man  has  a  right  thus  to  "judge 
another."     But  I  will  remind  Dr.  Gannett  that  a 


0  .   SPEECH    AT    THE 

few  years  ago,  he  and  I  differed  in  opinion  on  a  cer- 
tain matter  of  considerable  importance,  and  after 
clearly  expressing  om-  difference,  I  said  :  "  Well, 
there  is  an  honest  difference  of  opinion  between  us," 
and  he  said :  "  Not  an  honest  difference  of  opinion, 
Brother  Parker,"  for  he  called  me  "  Brother  "  then, 
and  not  "  ]VIr."  as  since,  and  now,  when  he  has  pub- 
licly said  he  cannot  take  my  hand  fraternaUi/.  Still 
there  was  an  honest  difference  of  opinion  on  his  part 
as  well  as  mine. 

]\Ir.  Osgood  apologizes  for  Dr.  Dewey ;  —  that  is, 
he  defends  his  motives.  I  am  glad  he  does  not  un- 
dertake to  defend  his  conduct,  only  to  deny  that  he 
[Dr.  Dew^ey]  uttered  the  words  alleged.  But  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  I  cannot  agree  with  Mr.  Osgood  in 
his  defence.  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it  to  be 
true  :  I  have  evidence  enough  that  he  said  so. 

Mr.  Gannett  in  demanding  obedience  to  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  made  two  points,  namely ;  if 
it  be  not  obeyed,  first,  we  shall  violate  all  human 
laws  ;  and  next,  there  will  be  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

Let  me  say  a  word  of  each.  But  first  let  me  say 
that  I  attribute  no  unmanly  motive  to  Mr.  Gannett. 

1  thought  him  honest  when  he  denied  that  I  was  ;  I 
think  him  honest  now.  I  know  him  to  be  conscien- 
tious, laborious,  and  self-denying.  I  think  he  would 
sacrifice  himself  for  another's  good.  I  wish  he  could 
now  sink  through  the  floor  for  two  or  three  minutes. 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE.  \) 

that  I  might  say  of  him  absent  yet  more  of  honora- 
ble praise,  which  I  will  not  insult  him  with  or  ad- 
dress to  him  while  before  my  face.  Let  me  only  say 
this,  that  if  there  be  any  men  in  this  Conference  who 
honor  and  esteem  Dr.  Gannett,  I  trust  I  am  second 
to  none  of  them.  But  I  do  not  share  his  opinions 
nor  partake  of  his  fears.  His  arguments  for  obeying 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  (ab  inconvenienti)  I  think 
are  of  no  value. 

If  we  do  not  obey  this  law,  he  says,  we  shall  diso- 
bey all  laws.  It  is  not  so.  There  is  not  a  country 
in  the  world  where  there  is  more  respect  for  human 
laws  than  in  New  England ;  nowhere  more  than  in 
Massachusetts.  Even  if  a  law  is  unpopular,  it  is 
not  popular  to  disobey  it.  Our  courts  of  justice  are 
popular  bodies,  nowhere  are  Judges  more  respected 
than  in  New  England.  No  officer,  constable  or 
sheriff,  hangman  or  jail-keeper,  is  unpopular  on  ac- 
count of  his  office.  Nay,  it  is  popular  to  inform 
against  your  neighbor  when  he  violates  the  law  of 
the  land.  This  is  not  so  in  any  other  country  of  the 
Christian  world ;  but  the  informer  is  infamous  every- 
where else. 

Why  are  we  thus  loyal  to  law  ?  First,  because 
we  make  the  laws  ourselves,  and  for  ourselves  ;  and 
next,  because  the  laws  actually  represent  the  Con- 
science of  the  People,  and  help  them  keep  the  laws 
of  God.  The  value  of  human  laws  is  only  this  — 
to  conserve  the  Great  Eternal  Law  of  God ;  to  ena- 


10  SPEECH   AT   THE 

ble  US  to  keep  that ;  to  hinder  us  from  disobeying 
that.  So  long  as  laws  do  this  we  should  obey 
them ;  New  England  will  be  loyal  to  such  laws. 

But  the  fuo^itive  slave  law  is  one  which  contradicts 
the  acknowledged  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion, 
universally  acknowledged.  It  violates  the  noblest 
instincts  of  humanity ;  it  asks  us  to  trample  on  the 
Law  of  God.  It  commands  what  Nature,  Religion, 
and  God  alike  forbid  ;  it  forbids  what  Nature,  Relig- 
ion, and  God  alike  command.  It  tends  to  defeat 
the  object  of  all  just  human  law;  it  tends  to  annihi- 
late the  observance  of  the  Law  of  God.  So  faith- 
ful to  God,  to  Religion,  to  Human  Nature,  and  in 
the  name  of  Law  itself,  we  protest  against  this  par- 
ticular statute,  and  trample  it  under  our  feet. 

Who  is  it  that  oppose  the  fugitive  slave  law? 
Men  that  have  always  been  on  the  side  of  "  law  and 
order,"  and  do  not  violate  the  statutes  of  men  for 
their  own  advantage.  This  disobedience  to  the  fu- 
gitive slave  law  is  one  of  the  strongest  guaranties 
for  the  observance  of  any  just  law.  You  cannot 
.trust  a  people  who  will  keep  law,  because  it  is  latu  ; 
nor  need  we  distrust  a  people  that  will  only  keep  a 
law  when  it  is  just.  The  fugitive  slave  law  itself, 
if  obeyed  will  do  more  to  overturn  the  power  of  hu- 
man law,  than  all  disobedience  to  it  —  the  most 
complete. 

Then  as  to  dissolution  of  the  Union.  I  [have] 
thought  if  any  State  wished  to  go,  she  had  a  natural 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE.  11 

right  to  do  so.  But  what  States  wished  to  go  ? 
Certainly  not  New  England :  by  no  means.  Massa- 
chusetts has  always  been  attached  to  the  Union,  — 
has  made  sacrifices  for  it.  In  1775,  if  she  had  said, 
"  There  shall  be  no  Revolution,"  there  would  have 
been  none.  ^  But  she  furnished  nearly  half  the 
soldiers  for  the  war,  and  more  than  half  of  the 
money.  In  '87,  if  Massachusetts  had  said,  "  Let 
there  be  no  Union ! "  there  would  have  been  none. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  Massachusetts  assented 
to  the  Constitution.  But  that  once  formed,  she  has 
adhered  to  it;  faithfully  adhered  to  the  Union.  When 
has  Massachusetts  failed  in  allegiance  to  it?  No 
man  can  say.  There  is  no  danger  of  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union ;  the  men  who  make  the  cry  know 
that  it  is  vain  and  deceitful.  You  cannot  drive  us 
asunder; — just  yet. 

But  suppose  that  was  the  alternative  :  that  we 
must  have  the  fugitive  slave  law,  or  dissolution. 
Which  were  the  worst ;  which  comes  nearest  to  the 
law  of  God  which  we  all  are  to  keep.  It  is  very 
plain.  Now  for  the  first  time  since  '87,  many  men 
of  Massachusetts  calculate  the  value  of  the  Union. 
What  is  it  worth  ?  Is  it  worth  to  us  so  mvich  as 
Conscience  ;  so  much  as  Freedom ;  so  much  as  alle- 
giance to  the  Law  of  God?  let  any  man  lay  his 
hand  on  his  heart  and  say,  "  I  will  sacrifice  all  these 
for  the  union  of  the  thirty  States  ?  For  my  own 
part,  I  would  rather  see  my  own  house  burnt  to  the 


12  '  SPEECH  AT   THE 

ground,  and  my  family  thrown,  one  by  one,  amid  the 
blazing  rafters  of  my  own  roof,  and  I  myself  be 
thrown  in  last  of  all,  rather  than  have  a  single  fugi- 
tive slave  sent  back  as  Thomas  Sims  was  sent 
back.  Nay,  I  should  rather  see  this  Union  "  dis- 
solved," till  there  was  not  a  territory  so  large  as  the 
county  of  Suffolk  I  Let  us  lose  every  thing  but 
fidelity  to  God. 

Mr.  Osgood  reflects  on  me  for  my  sermons ;  they 
are  poor  enough.  You  know  it  if  you  try  to  read 
such  as  are  in  print.  I  know  it  better  than  you. 
But  I  am  not  a  going  to  speak  honeyed  words  and 
prophesy  smooth  things  in  times  like  these,  and  say, 
"  Peace !  Peace  I  when  there  is  no  peace  I  " 

A  little  while  ago  we  were  told  we  must  not 
preach  on  this  matter  of  slavery,  because  it  was  "  an 
abstraction ; "  then  because  the  "  North  was  all 
right  on  that  subject ; "  and  then  because  "  we  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it,"  "we  must  go  to  Charleston 
or  New  Orleans  to  see  it."  But  now  it  is  a  most 
concrete  thing.  We  see  what  public  opinion  is  on 
the  matter  of  slavery ;  what  it  is  in  Boston  ;  nay, 
what  it  is  with  members  of  this  Conference.  It 
favors  slavery  and  this  wicked  law  I  We  need  not 
go  to  Charleston  and  New  Orleans  to  see  slavery; 
our  own  Court  House  was  a  barracoon ;  our  officers 
of  this  city  were  slave  hunters,  and  members  of  Uni- 
tarian churches  in  Boston  are  kidnappers. 

I  have  in  my  church  black  men,  fugitive  slaves. 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE.  13 

They  are  the  crown  of  my  apostleship,  the  seal  of 
my  ministry.  It  becomes  me  to  look  after  their  bod- 
ies in  order  to  "  save  their  souls."  This  law  has 
brought  us  into  the  most  intimate  connection  with 
the  sin  of  slavery.  I  have  been  obliged  to  take  my 
own  parishioners  into  my  house  to  keep  them  out  of 
the  clutches  of  the  kidnapper.  Yes,  gentlemen,  I 
have  been  obliged  to  do  that;  and  then  to  keep  my 
doors  guarded  by  day  as  well  as  by  night.  Yes,  I 
have  had  to  arm  myself.  I  have  written  my  ser- 
mons with  a  pistol  in  my  desk,  —  loaded,  a  cap  on 
the  nipple,  and  ready  for  action.  Yea,  with  a  drawn 
sword  within  reach  of  my  right  hand.  This  I  have 
done  in  Boston ;  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century ;  been  obliged  to  do  it  to  defend  the  [inno- 
cent] members  of  my  own  church,  women  as  well 
as  men  I 

You  know  that  I  do  not  like  fighting.  I  am  no 
non-resistant,  "that  nonsense*  never  went  down 
with  me."  But  it  is  no  small  matter  which  will 
compel  me  to  shed  human  blood.  But  what  could  I 
do  ?  I  was  born  in  the  little  town  where  the  fight 
and  bloodshed  of  the  Revolution  began.  The  bones 
of  the  men  who  first  fell  in  that  war  are  covered  by 
the  monument  at  Lexington,  it  is  "  sacred  to  Liberty 

*  Mr.  May  of  Syracuse  afterwards  objected  to  the  word  non- 
sense as  applied  to  non-resistance.  The  phrase  was  quoted  from 
another  member  of  the  Conference,  whose  eye  caught  mine 
while  speaking,  and  suggested  his  own  language. 

VOL.   I.  2 


14  SPEECH   AT   THE 

and  the  Rights  of  Mankind : "  those  men  fell  "  in 
the  sacred  cause  of  God  and  their  country."  This 
is  the  first  inscription  that  I  ever  read.  These  men 
were  my  kindred.  My  grandfather  drew  the  first 
sword  in  the  Revolution ;  my  fathers  fired  the  first 
shot ;  the  blood  which  flowed  there  was  kindred  to 
this  which  courses  in  my  veins  to-day.  Besides  that, 
when  I  write  in  my  library  at  home,  on  the  one  side 
of  me  is  the  Bible  which  my  fathers  prayed  over, 
their  morning  and  their  evening  prayer,  for  nearly  a 
hundred  years.  On  the  other  side  there  hangs  the 
firelock  my  grandfather  fought  with  in  the  old  French 
war,  which  he  carried  at  the  taking  of  Quebec, 
which  he  zealously  used  at  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
and  beside  it  is  another,  a  trophy  of  that  war,  the 
first  gun  taken  in  the  Revolution,  taken  also  by  my 
grandfather.  With  these  things  before  me,  these 
symbols  ;  with  these  memories  in  me,  when  a  parish- 
ioner, a  fugitive  from  slavery,  a  woman,  pursued  by 
the  kidnappers,  came  to  my  house,  what  could  I  do 
less  than  take  her  in  and  defend  her  to  the  last  ? 
But  who  sought  her  life  —  or  liberty  ?  A  parishioner 
of  my  Brother  Gannett  came  to  kidnap  a  member 
of  my  church ;  Mr.  Gannett  preaches  a  sermon  to 
justify  the  fugitive  slave  law,  demanding  that  it 
should  be  obeyed ;  yes,  calling  on  his  church  mem- 
bers to  kidnap  mine,  and  sell  them  into  bondage  for- 
ever. Yet  all  this  while  Mr.  Gannett  calls  himself 
"  a  Christian,"  and  me  an  "  Infidel ;  "  his  doctrine  is 


MINISTERIAL   CONFERENCE.  15 

"  Christianity,"  mine  is  only  "  Infidelity,"  "  Deism, 
at  the  best ! " 

O,  my  Brothers,  I  am  not  afraid  of  men,  I  can 
offend  them.  I  care  nothing  for  their  hate,  or  their 
esteem.  I  am  not  very  careful  of  my  reputation. 
But  I  should  not  dare  to  violate  the  Eternal  Law  of 
God.  You  have  called  me  "  Infidel."  Surely  I  differ 
widely  enough  from  you  in  my  theology.  But 
there  is  one  thing  I  cannot  fail  to  trust ;  that  is  the 
Infinite  God,  Father  of  the  white  man,  Father 
also  of  the  white  man's  slave.  I  should  not  dare  vi- 
olate his  Laws  come  what  may  come ;  — should  you  ? 
Nay,  I  can  love  nothing  so  well  as  I  love  my 
God. 


THE     BOSTON     KIDNAPPING. 


DISCOURSE 

TO  COMMEMORATE  THE 

RENDITION    OF    THOMAS    SIMS, 

DELIVEKED  ON  THE  FIKST  ANNIVERSARY  THEREOF, 
APRIL     12,     1852, 

BEFORE  THE   COMMITTEE   OF  VIGILANCE, 

AT    THE    MELODEON,    IN    BOSTON. 


discourse; 


There  are  times  of  private,  personal  joy  and 
delight,  when  some  good  deed  has  been  done,  or 
some  extraordinary  blessing  welcomed  to  the  arms. 
Then  a  man  stops,  and  pours  out  the  expression  of 
his  heightened  consciousness ;  gives  gladness  words ; 
or  else,  in  manly  quietness,  exhales  to  heaven  his 
joy,  too  deep  for  speech.  Thus  the  lover  rejoices  in 
his  young  heart  of  hearts,  when  another  breast  beats 


*  Rev.  Theodore  Parker  :  — 

Dear  Sir,  —  We  know  that  we  express  the  earnest  and  unan- 
imous wish  of  all  who  listened  to  your  appropriate  and  eloquent 
address  last  Monday,  in  asking  a  copy  of  it  for  the  press. 
Yours  respectfully, 

Wendell  Phillips, 
Henry  I.  Bowditch, 
Timothy  Gilbert, 
John  P.  Jewett, 
M.  P.  Hanson, 
John  M.  Spear, 
Boston,  April  15,  1852, 


Committee 

of 
Arrangements. 


20  THE  BOSTON  KIDNAPPING. 

in  conscious  unison  with  his  own,  and  two  souls  are 
iirst  made  one ;  so  a  father  rejoices,  so  a  mother  is 
filled  with  delight,  her  hour  of  anguish  over,  when 
their  gladdened  eyes  behold  the  new-born  daughter 
or  the  new-born  son.  Henceforth  the  day  of  newly 
Tivelcomed  love,  the  day  of  newly  welcomed  life,  is 
an  epoch  of  delight,  marked  for  thanksgiving  with  a 
white  stone  in  their  calends  of  time,  —  their  day  of 
Annunciation  or  of  Advent,  a  gladsome  anniversary 
in  their  lives  for  many  a  year. 

When  these  married  mates  are  grown  maturely 
wed,  they  rejoice  to  live  over  again  their  early  loves, 
a  second  time  removing  the  hindrances  which  once 
strewed  all  the  way,  dreaming  anew  the  sweet  pro- 
phetic dream  of  early  hope,  and  bringing  back  the 
crimson  mornings  and  the  purple  nights  of  golden 
days  gone  by,  which  still  keep  "  trailing  clouds  of 
glory  "  as  they  pass.  At  their  silver  wedding,  they 
are  proud  to  see  their  children's  manlyfying  face,  and 
remember  how,  one  by  one,  these  olive  plants  came 
up  about  their  ever-widening  hearth. 

When  old  and  full  of  memories  of  earth,  their 
hopes  chiefly  of  heaven  now,  they  love  to  keep 
the  golden  wedding  of  their  youthful  joy,  chil- 
dren and  children's  children  round  their  venerable 
board. 

Thus  the  individual  man  seeks  to  commemorate 
his  private  personal  joy,  and  build  up  a  monument 
of  his  domestic  bliss. 


THE  BOSTON  KIDNAPPING.  21 

So,  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  there  are  proud  days, 
when  the  people  joined  itself  to  some  great  Idea  of 
Justice,  Truth,  and  Love ;  took  some  step  forward 
in  its  destiny,  or  welcomed  to  national  baptism  some 
institution  born  of  its  great  idea.  The  anniversa- 
ries of  such  events  become  red-letter  days  in  the  al- 
manac of  the  nation  ;  days  of  rejoicing,  till  that  peo- 
ple, old  and  gray  with  manifold  experience,  goes  the 
way  of  all  the  nations,  as  of  all  its  men. 

Thus,  on  the  twenty-second  of  December,  all  New 
England  thanks  God  for  those  poor  Pilgrims  whose 
wearied  feet  first  found  repose  in  this  great  wilder- 
ness of  woods,  not  broken  then.  Each  year,  their 
children  love  to  gather  on  the  spot  made  famous 
now,  and  bring  to  mind  the  ancient  deed ;  to  honor 
it  with  speech  and  song,  not  without  prayers  to  God. 
That  day  there  is  a  springing  of  New  England  blood, 
a  beating  of  New  England  hearts ;  not  only  here, 
but  wherever  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in 
the  name  of  New  England,  there  is  the  memory  of 
the  Pilgrims  in  the  midst  of  them;  and  among  the 
prairies  of  the  West,  along  the  rivers  of  the  South, 
far  off  where  the  Pacific  waits  to  bring  gold  to  our 
shores  of  rock  and  sand,  —  even  there  the  annual 
song  of  gladness  bursts  from  New  England  lips. 

So  America  honors  the  birth  of  the  nation  with  a 
holiday  for  all  the  people.  Then  we  look  anew  at 
the  national  idea,  reading  for  the  six  and  seventieth 
time  the  programme  of  our  progress,  —  its  first  part  a 


22  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

revolution ;  we  study  our  history  before  and  since, 
bringing  back  the  day  of  small  things,  when  our 
fathers  went  from  one  kingdom  to  another  people ; 
we  rejoice  at  the  wealthy  harvest  gathered  from  the 
unalienable  rights  of  men,  sown  in  new  soil.  On 
that  day  the  American  flag  goes  topmast  high ;  and 
men  in  ships,  far  off  in  the  silent  wilderness  of  the 
ocean,  celebrate  the  nation's  joyous  day.  In  all  the 
great  cities  of  the  Eastern  World,  American  hearts 
beat  quicker  then,  and  thank  their  God. 

But  a  few  days  ago,  the  Hebrew  nation  commem- 
orated its  escape  out  of  Egypt,  celebrating  its  Pass- 
over. Though  three  and  thirty  hundred  years  have 
since  passed  by,  yet  the  Israelite  remembers  that  his 
fathers  were  slaves  in  the  land  of  the  stranger ;  that 
the  Pyramids,  even  then  a  fact  accomplished  and 
representing  an  obsolete  idea,  were  witnesses  to  the 
thraldom  of  his  race ;  and  the  joy  of  Jacob  trium- 
phant over  the  gods  of  Egypt  lights  up  the  Hebrew 
countenance  in  the  melancholy  Ghetto  of  Rome,  as 
the  recollection  of  the  hundred  and  one  Pilgrims 
deepens  the  joy  of  the  Calif ornian  New  Englanders 
delighting  in  the  glory  of  their  nation,  and  their  own 
abundant  gain.  The  pillar  of  fire  still  goes  before 
the  Hebrew,  in  the  long  night  of  Israel's  wandering  ; 
and  still  the  Passover  is  a  day  of  joy  and  of  proud 
remembrance. 

Every  ancient  nation  has  thus  its  calendar  filled 
with  joyful  days.     The  worshippers  of  Jesus  delight 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  23 

in  their  Christmas  and  their  Easter;  the  Mahome- 
tans, in  the  Hegira  of  the  Prophet.  The  year-book 
of  mankind  is  thus  marked  all  the  way  through  with 
the  red-letter  days  of  history.  And  most  beautifully 
do  those  days  illuminate  the  human  year,  commem- 
orating the  victories  of  the  race,  the  days  of  triumph 
which  have  marked  the  course  of  man  in  his  long 
and  varied,  but  yet  triumphant,  march  of  many  a^ 
thousand  years.  Thereby  Hebrews,  Buddhists,  Chris- 
tians, Mahometans,  men  of  every  form  of  religion  ;; 
English,  French,  Americans,  men  of  all  nations, — 
are  reminded  of  the  great  facts  in  their  peculiar  story ;, 
and  mankind  learns  the  lesson  they  were  meant  to 
teach,  writ  in  the  great  events  of  the  cosmic  life  of 
man. 

These  things  should,  indeed,  be  so.  It  were  wrong^ 
to  miss  a  single  bright  day  from  the  story  of  a  man,, 
a  nation,  or  mankind.  Let  us  mark  these  days,  and 
be  glad. 

But  there  are  periods  of  sorrow,  not  less  than  joy> 
There  comes  a  shipwreck  to  the  man ;  and  though 
he  tread  the  waters  under  him,  and  come  alive  to. 
land,  yet  his  memory  drips  with  sorrow  for  many  a 
year  to  come.  The  widow  marks  her  time  by  dat- 
ing from  the  day  which  shore  off  the  better  portion 
of  herself,  counting  her  life  by  years  of  widowhood, 
Marius,  exiled,  hunted  after,  denied  fire  and  water,  a 
price  set  on  his  head,  just  escaping  the  murderers  and 


24  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

the  sea,  "  sitting  a  fugitive  on  the  ruins  of  Carthage  " 
which  he  once  destroyed,  himself  a  sadder  ruin  now, 
folds  his  arms  and  bows  his  head  in  manly  grief. 

These  days  also  are  remembered.  It  takes  long 
to  efface  what  is  written  in  tears.  Forever  the  father 
bears  the  annual  wound  that  rent  his  child  away : 
fifty  years  do  not  fill  up  the  tomb  which  let  a  mortal 
through  the  earth  to  heaven.  The  anniversaries  of 
grief  return.  At  St.  Helena,  on  the  eighteenth  of 
every  June,  how  Napoleon  remembered  the  morning 
and  the  evening  of  the  day  at  Waterloo,  the  begin- 
ning and  the  ending  of  his  great  despair ! 

So  the  nations  mourn  at  some  great  defeat,  and 
hate  the  day  thereof.  How  the  Frenchman  detests 
the  very  name  of  Waterloo,  and  wishes  to  wipe  off 
from  that  battle  field  the  monument  of  earth  the 
allies  piled  thereon,  commemorative  of  his  nation's 
loss!  Old  mythologies  are  true  to  this  feeling  of 
mankind,  when  they  relate  that  the  spirit  of  some 
great  man  who  died  defeated  comes  and  relates 
that  he  is  sad :  they  tell  that  — 

"  Great  Pompey's  shade  complains  that  we  are  slow, 
And  Scipio's  ghost  walks  unrevenged  amongst  us." 

An  antique  nation,  with  deep  faith  in  God,  looks 
on  these  defeats  as  correction  from  the  hand  of 
Heaven.  In  sorrow  the  Jew  counts  from  the  day  of 
his  Exile,  mourning  that  the  city  sitteth  solitary  that 
was  full  of  people ;  that  among  all  her  lovers  she 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  25 

hath  none  to  comfort  her  ;  that  she  dwelleth  among 
the  heathen  and  hath  no  rest.  But,  he  adds,  the 
Lord  afflicted  her,  because  of  the  multitude  of  her 
transgressions ;  for  Jerusalem  had  greatly  sinned. 
How,  in  the  day  of  her  miseries,  the  Jew  remembers 
her  pleasant  things  that  she  had  in  the  days  of  old ; 
how  her  children  have  swooned  from  their  wounds 
in  the  streets  of  their  city,  and  have  jDoured  out  their 
soul  into  their  mother's  bosom;  Jerusalem  is  ruined, 
and  Judah  is  forsaken,  because  their  tongue  and  their 
doings  were  against  the  Lord,  to  provoke  the  eyes  of 
his  glory ! 

It  is  well  that  mother  and  Marius  should  mourn 
their  loss ;  that  Napoleon  and  the  Hebrew  should 
remember  each  his  own  defeat.  Poets  say,  that,  on 
the  vigil  of  a  fight,  the  old  soldier's  wounds  smart 
afresh,  bleeding  anew.  The  poet's  fancy  should  be 
a  nation's  fact. 

But  sometimes  a  man  commits  a  wrong.  He  is 
false  to  himself,  and  stains  the  integrity  of  his  soul. 
He  comes  to  consciousness  thereof,  and  the  shame 
of  the  consequence  is  embittered  by  remorse  for  the 
cause.  Thus  Peter  weeps  at  his  own  denial,  and 
Judas  hangs  himself  at  the  recollection  of  his  treach- 
ery ;  so  David  bows  his  penitent  forehead,  and  lies 
prostrate  in  the  dust.  The  anniversary  of  doing 
wrong  is  writ  with  fire  on  the  dark  tablets  of  mem- 
ory.    How  a  murderer  convicted,  yet  spared  in  jail, 

VOL.    I.  3 


26  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

—  or,  not  convicted,  still  at  large,  —  must  remember 
the  day  when  he  first  reddened  his  hand  at  his  broth- 
er's heart !  '  As  the  remorseless  year  brings  back  the 
day,  the  hour,  the  moment  and  the  memory  of  the 
deed,  what  recollections  of  ghastly  visages  come  back 
to  him  I 

I  once  knew  a  New  England  man  who  had  dealt 
in  slaves ;  I  now  know  several  such ;  but  this  man 
stole  his  brothers  in  Guinea  to  sell  in  America.  He 
was  a  hard,  cruel  man,  and  had  grown  rich  by  the 
crime.  But,  hard  and  cruel  as  he  was,  at  the  men- 
tion of  the  slave-trade,  the  poor  wretch  felt  a  torture 
at  his  iron  heart  which  it  was  piteous  to  behold". 
His  soul  wrought  within  him  like  the  tossings  of 
the  tropic  sea  about  his  ship,  deep  fraught  with  hu- 
man wretchedness.  He  illustrated  the  torments  of 
that  other  "  middle  passage,"  not  often  named. 

Benedict  Arnold,  successful  in  his  treason,  safe,  — 
only  Andre  hanged,  not  he,  the  guilty  man,  —  pen- 
sioned, feasted,  rich,  yet  hated  by  all  ingenuous 
souls,  not  great  enough  to  pity,  hateful  to  himself; 
how  this  first  great  public  shame  of  New  England 
must  have  remembered  the  twenty-fifth  September, 
and  have  lived  over  again  each  year  the  annual  trea- 
son of  his  heart  I 

It  is  well  for  men  to  pause  on  such  days,  the  an- 
niversary of  their  crime,  and  see  the  letters  which 
sin  has  branded  in  their  consciousness  come  out 
anew,  and  burn,  even  in  the  scars  they  left  behind. 


THE   BOSTOiSr   KIDNAPPING.  27 

111  sadness,  in  penitence,  in  prayers  of  resolution, 
should  a  man  mark  these  days  in  his  own  sad  calen- 
dar. They  are  times  for  a  man  to  retire  within  him- 
self, to  seek  communion  with  his  God,  and  cleanse 
him  of  the  elephantine  leprosy  his  sin  has  brought 
upon  his  soul. 

There  are  such  days  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  when 
it  stains  its  own  integrity,  commits  treason  against 
mankind,  and  sin  against  the  most  high  God ;  when 
a  proud  king,  or  wicked  minister,  —  his  rare  power 
consorting  with  a  vulgar  aim,  —  misled  the  people's 
heart,  abused  the  nation's  strength,  organized  ini- 
quity as  law,  condensing  a  world  of  wicked  will  into 
a  single  wicked  deed,  and  wrought  some  hideous 
Bartholomew  massacre  in  the  face  of  the  sun.  The 
anniversary  of  such  events  is  a  day  of  hoiTor  and  of 
shivering  to  mankind  ;  a  day  of  sorrow  to  the  guilty 
State  which  pricks  with  shame  at  the  anniversary  of 
the  deed. 

The  twelfth  of  April  is  such  a  day  for  Boston 
and  this  State.  It  is  the  first  anniversary  of  a 
great  crime,  —  a  crime  against  the  majesty  of  Mas- 
sachusetts law,  and  the  dignity  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States :  of  a  great  wrong,  — 
a  wrong  against  you  and  me,  and  all  of  us, 
against  the  babe  not  born,  against  the  nature  of 
mankind ;  of  a  great  sin,  —  a  sin  against  the  Law 
God  wrote  in  human  nature,  a  sin  against  the  Infi- 


28  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

nite  God.  It  was  a  great  crime,  a  great  wrong,  a 
great  sin,  on  the  side  of  the  American  government, 
which  did  the  deed  :  on  the  people's  part  it  was  a 
great  defeat ;  your  defeat  and  mine. 

Out  of  the  iron  house  of  bondage,  a  man,  guilty 
of  no  crime  but  love  of  liberty,  fled  to  the  people  of 
Massachusetts.  He  came  to  us  a  wanderer,  and 
Boston  took  him  in  to  an  unlawful  jail ;  hungry,  and 
she  fed  him  with  a  felon's  meat ;  thirsty,  she  gave 
him  the  gall  and  vinegar  of  a  slave  to  drink ;  naked, 
she  clothed  him  with  chains ;  sick  and  in  prison,  he 
cried  for  a  helper,  and  Boston  sent  him  a  marshal 
and  a  commissioner ;  she  set  him  between  kidnap- 
pers, among  the  most  infamous  of  men,  and  they 
made  him  their  slave.  Poor  and  in  chains,  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  nation  against  him,  he  sent  round  to 
the  churches  his  petition  for  their  prayers ;  —  the 
churches  of  commerce,  they  gave  him  their  curse : 
he  asked  of  us  the  sacrament  of  freedom,  in  the 
name  of  our  God;  and  in  the  name  oi  their  Trinity, 
the  Trinity  of  money,  —  Boston  standing  as  god- 
mother at  the  ceremony,  —  in  the  name  of  their  God 
they  baptized  him  a  slave.  The  New  England 
church  of  commerce  said,  "  Thy  name  is  Slave.  I 
baptize  thee  in  the  name  of  the  gold  eagle,  and  of 
the  silver  dollar,  and  of  the  copper  cent." 

This  is  holy  ground  that  we  stand  on :  godly  men 
laid  here  the  foundation  of  a  Christian  Church ;  laid 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  29 

it  with  prayers,  laid  it  with  tears,  laid  it  in  blood. 
Noble  men  laid  here  the  fou]idation  of  a  Christian 
State,  with  all  the  self-denial  of  New  England  men ; 
laid  that  with  prayers,  with  tears,  laid  that  in 
blood.  They  sought  a  church  without  a  bishop,  a 
state  without  a  king,  a  community  without  a  lord, 
and  a  family  without  a  slave.  Yet  even  here  in 
Massachusetts,  w^hich  first  of  American  colonies 
sent  forth  the  idea  of  "inherent  and  unalienable 
rights,"  and  first  offered  the  conscious  sacrament  of 
her  blood ;  here,  in  Boston,  which  once  was  full  of 
manly  men  who  rocked  the  Cradle  of  Liberty, — 
even  here  the  rights  of  man  were  of  no  value  and 
of  no  avail.  Massachusetts  took  a  man  from  the 
horns  of  her  altar,  —  he  had  fled  to  her  for  protection, 
—  and  voluntarily  gave  him  up  to  bondage  without 
end ;  did  it  with  her  eyes  wide  open  ;  did  it  on  pur- 
pose ;  did  it  in  notorious  violation  of  her  own  law, 
in  consciousness  of  the  sin  ;  did  it  after  "  fasting  and 
prayer."  * 

It  is  well  for  us  to  come  together,  and  consider 
the  defeat  which  you  and  I  have  suffered  when  the 
rights  of  man  "were  thus  cloven  down,  and  look  at 
the  crime  committed  by  those  whom  posterity  will 
rank  among  infidels  to  Christianity,  among  the  ene- 


*  Thg  annual  day  of  "  fasting  and  prayer,"  came  between  the 
seizure  of  Mr.  Sims  and  his  rendition  !  Boston  fasted  and  made 
long  prayers,  and  devoured  a  man's  liberty  ! 

3* 


30  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

mies  of  man ;  it  is  \vell  to  commemorate  the  event, 
the  disgrace  of  Boston,  the  perpetual  shame  and 
blot  of  Massachusetts.  Yet  it  was  not  the  People 
of  Massachusetts  who  did  the  deed  :  it  was  only 
their  government.  The  officers  are  one  thing;  and 
the  people,  thank  God,  are  something  a  little  dif- 
ferent. 

If  a  deed  which  so  outraged  the  people  had  been 
done  by  the  government  of  Massachusetts  a  hundred 
years  ago,  there  would  have  been  a  "  Day  of  Fasting 
and  Prayer,"  and  next  a  muster  of  soldiers :  one  day 
the  people  would  have  thought  of  their  trust  in  God, 
and  the  next  looked  to  it  that  their  powder  was  dry. 
Now  nobody  fasts,  save  to  the  eye ;  he  prays  best 
who,  not  asking  God  to  do  man's  work,  prays  peni- 
tence, prays  resolutions,  and  then  prays  deeds,  thus 
supplicating  with  heart  and  head  and  hands.  This 
is  a  day  for  such  a  prayer.  The  twelfth  of  last 
April  issued  the  proclamation  which  brings  us  here 
to-day. 

We  have  historical  precedent  for  this  commemora- 
tion, if  men  need  such  an  argument.  After  the  Bos- 
ton Massacre  of  the  fifth  of  March,  1770,  the  people 
had  amuially  a  solemn  commemoration  of  the  event. 
They  had  their  great  and  honored  men  to  the  pulpit 
on  that  occasion  :  Lovell,  child  of  a  tory  father, — 
the  son's  patriotism  brought  him  to  a  British  jail ; 
Tudor  and  Dawes,  honorable  and  honored  names ; 
Thacher,  "the  young  Elijah"  of  his  times;  Warren, 


THE   BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  31 

twice  called  to  that  post,  but  destined  soon  to  perish 
by  a  British  hand  ;  John  Hancock,  —  his  very  name 
was  once  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  town.  They 
stood  here,  and,  mindful  of  their  brothers  slain  in  the 
street  not  long  to  bear  the  name  of  "  King,"  taught 
the  lesson  of  liberty  to  their  fellow  men.  The  men- 
ace of  British  officers,'  their  presence  in  the  aisles  of 
the  church,  the  sight  of  their  weapons  on  the  pulpit- 
stairs,  did  not  frighten  Joseph  Warren,  —  not  a  hire- 
ling shepherd,  though  he  came  in  by  the  pulpit-win- 
dow, while  soldiers  crammed  the  porch.  Did  they 
threaten  to  stop  his  mouth  ?  It  took  bullet  and  bay- 
onet both  to  silence  his  lips.  John  Hancock  was  of 
eyes  too  pure  to  fear  the  government  of  Britain. 
Once,  when  Boston  was  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
of  freedom,  —  I  mean  the  foreign  enemy,  —  the  dis- 
course could  not  be  delivered  here;  Boston  adjourned 
to  Watertown  to  hear  "the  young  Elijah"  ask 
whether  "  the  rising  empire  of  America  shall  be  an 
empire  of  slaves  or  of  free  men."  But  on  that  day 
there  was  another  commemoration  held  hard  by ; 
"  one  George  Washington "  discoursed  from  the 
"  Heights  of  Dorchester ; "  and,  soon  after,  Israel 
Putnam  marched  over  the  Neck, —  and  there  was  not 
a  "  Red-coat"  south  of  the  North  End.  The  March 
of  '76  was  not  far  from  the  July  of  '76,  when  yet 
another  discourse  got  spoken. 

For  twelve  years   did   our  fathers   commemorate 
the    first   blood   shed   here    by    soldiers    "  quartered 


32  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

among  us  without  our  consent; "  yes,  until  there  was 
not  a  "  Red-coat "  left  in  the  land ;  and  the  gloom 
of  the  Boston  Massacre  was  forgot  in  the  blaze  of 
American  independence  ;  the  murder  of  five  men,  in 
the  freedom  of  two  millions. 

The  first  slave  Boston  has  officially  sent  back 
since  1770  was  returned  a  year  ago.  Let  us  com- 
memorate the  act,  till  there  is  not  a  kidnapper  left  in 
all  the  North  ;  not  a  kidnapper  lurking  in  a  lawyer's 
office  in  all  Boston,  or  in  a  merchant's  counting- 
room  ;  not  a  priest  who  profanes  his  function  by 
flouting  at  the  Higher  Law  of  God ;  till  there  is  not 
a  slave  in  America ;  and  sorrow  at  the  rendition  of 
Thomas  Sims  shall  be  forgotten  in  the  freedom  of 
three  million  men.  Let  us  remember  the  Boston 
Kidnapping,  as  our  fathers  kept  the  memory  of  the 
Boston  Massacre. 

It  is  a  fitting  time  to  come  together.  There  was 
once  a  "dark  day"  in  New  England,  when  the  vis- 
ible heavens  were  hung  with  night,  and  men's  faces 
gathered  blackness,  less  from  the  sky  above  than 
from  the  fears  within.  But  New  England  never  saw 
a  day  so  black  as  the  twelfth  of  April,  1851 ;  a  day 
whose  Egyptian  darkness  will  be  felt  for  many  a 
year  to  come. 

New  England  has  had  days  of  misfortune  before 
this,  and  of  mourning  at  the  sin  of  her  magistrates. 
In  1761,  a  mean  man  in  a  high  place  in  the  British 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  33 

Island,  thinking  that  "discussion  must  be  sup- 
pressed," declared  that  citizens  "  are  not  to  demand 
the  reasons  of  measures ;  they  must,  and  they  easily 
may,  be  taught  better  manners."  The  British  min- 
istry decided  to  tax  the  colonies  without  their  con- 
sent. Massachusetts  decided  to  be  taxed  only  with 
her  own  consent.  The  Board  of  Trade  determined 
to  collect  duties  against  the  will  of  the  people.  The 
Government  insisted  ;  the  mercenaries  of  the  Cus- 
tom-House  in  Boston  applied  for  "  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance," authorizing  them  to  search  for  smuggled 
goods  where  and  when  they  pleased,  and  to  call  on 
the  people  to  help  in  the  matter.  The  mercenary 
who  filled  the  Governor's  chair  favored  the  outrage. 
The  Court,  obedient  to  power,  and  usually  on  the 
side  of  prerogative  and  against  the  right,  seemed 
ready  to  pervert  the  law  against  Justice.  Massa- 
chusetts felt  her  liberties  in  peril,  and  began  the  War 
of  Ideas.  James  Otis,  an  irregular  but  brilliant  and 
powerful  man  from  Barnstable  and  an  acute  lawyer, 
resigned  his  post  of  Advocate  to  the  Admiralty ; 
threw  up  his  chance  of  preferment,  and  was  deter- 
mined "  to  sacrifice  estate,  ease,  health,  applause, 
and  even  life,  to  the  sacred  calls  of  my  country," 
and  in  opposition  to  that  kind  of  power  "  which  cost 
one  King  of  England  his  head,  and  another  his 
throne." 

It  was  a  dark   day  in   Massachusetts  when  the 
Writs  of  Assistance  were  called  for ;  when  the  tal- 


34  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

eiits,  the  fame,  the  riches,  and  the  avarice  of  Chief- 
Justice  Hutchinson,  the  respectability  of  venerable 
men,  the  power  of  the  crown  and  its  officers,  were 
all  against  the  right ;  but  that  brave  lawyer  stood  up, 
his  words  "  a  flame  of  fire,"  to  demonstrate  "  that 
all  arbitrary  authority  was  unconstitutional  and 
against  the  law."  His  voice  rung  through  the  land 
like  a  war-psalm  of  the  Hebrew  muse.  Hutchinson, 
rich,  false,  and  in  power,  cowered  before  the  "  great 
incendiary "  of  New  England.  John  Adams,  a 
young  lawyer  from  Quincy,  who  stood  by,  touched 
by  the  same  inspiration,  declared  that  afterwards  he 
could  never  read  the  Acts  of  Trade  without  anger, 
nor  "  any  portion  of  them  without  a  curse."  If  the 
Court  was  not  convinced,  the  people  were.  It  was 
a  dark  day  when  the  Writs  of  Assistance  were  called 
for;  but  the  birthplace  of  Franklin  took  the  light- 
ning out  of  that  thundering  cloud,  and  the  storm 
broke  into  rain  which  brought  forth  the  green  glories 
of  Liberty-tree,  that  soon  blossomed  all  over  in  the 
radiance  of  the  bow  of  promise  set  on  the  departing 
cloud.  The  seed  from  that  day  of  bloom  shall  sow 
with  blessings  all  the  whole  wide  world  of  man. 

There  was  another  dark  time  when  the  Stamp 
Act  passed,  and  the  day  came  for  the  use  of  the 
Stamps,  Nov.  1st,  1765.  The  people  of  Boston 
closed  their  shops ;  they  muffled  and  tolled  the  bells 
of   the   churches ;    they   hung    on    Liberty-tree   the 


THE    BOSTON   KIDNAPPINa.  35 

effigy  of  Mr.  Huske,  a  New  Hampshire  traitor  of 
that  time,  who  had  removed  to  London,  got  a  seat 
in  Parliament,  and  was  said  to  have  proposed  the 
Stamp  Act  to  the  British  minister.  Beside  him  they 
hung  the  image  of  Grenville,  the  ministerial  author 
of  the  Act.  [n  the  afternoon,  the  public  cut  down 
the  images ;  carried  them  in  at  cart,  thousands  fol- 
lowing to  the  Town-House,  where  the  Governor 
and  Council  were  in  session  ;  carried  the  effigies  sol- 
emnly through  the  building,  and  thence  to  the  gal- 
lows, where,  after  hanging  a  while,  they  were  cut 
down  and  torn  to  pieces.  All  was  done  quietly,  or- 
derly, and  with  no  violence.  Tt  was  All- Saints- 
Day  :  two  hundred  and  forty-eight  years  before,  Mar- 
tin Luther  had*  pilloried  the  Papacy  on  a  church- 
door  at  Wittenberg,  not  knowing  what  would  fall  at 
the  sound  of  his  hammer  nailing  up  the  Ninety-five 
Theses. 

Nobody  would  touch  the  hated  stamps.  Mr.  Oli- 
ver, the  Secretary  of  the  Province,  and  "  distributor 
of  stamps,"  had  been  hanged  in  effigy  before.  His 
stamp-office  had  already  given  a  name  to  the  sea, 
"  Oliver's  Dock  "  long  commemorating  the  fate  of 
the  building.  Dismayed  by  the  voice  of  the  people, 
he  resigned  his  office.  Not  satisfied  with  that,  the 
people  had  him  before  an  immense  meeting  at  Lib- 
erty-tree ;  and  at  noonday,  under  the  very  limb 
where  he  had  been  hung  in  effigy,  before  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace  he  took  an  oath  that  he  never  would 


36  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

take  any  measures  ....  for  enforcing  the  Stamp  Act 
in  America.  Then,  with  three  cheers  for  liberty,  Mr. 
Oliver  was  allowed  to  return  home.  He  ranked  as 
the  third  crown-officer  in  the  Colony.  Where  could 
yon  find  "  one  of  his  Majesty's  Justices  of  the 
Peace "  to  administer  such  an  oath  before  such  a 
"  town-meeting "  ?  A  man  was  found  to  do  that 
deed,  and  leave  descendants  to  be  proud  of  it;  for, 
after  three  generations  have  passed  by,  the  name  of 
Richard  Dana  is  still  on  the  side  of  liberty. 

No  more  of  stamps  in  Boston  at  that  time.  In 
time  of  danger,  it  is  thought  "  a  good  thing  to  have 
a  man  in  the  house."  Boston  had  provided  herself. 
There  were  a  good  many  who  did  not  disgrace  the 
name.  Amongst  others,  there  was  one  of  such  "  ob- 
stinacy and  inflexible  disposition,"  said  Hutchinson, 
"  that  he  could  never  be  conciliated  by  any  office  or 
gift  whatever."  Yet  Samuel  Adams  was  "  not  rich, 
nor  a  bachelor."  There  was  another,  one  John 
Adams,  son  of  a  shoemaker  at  Quincy,  not  a  whit 
less  obstinate  or  hard  to  conciliate  with  gifts.  When 
he  heard  Otis  in  that  great  argument,  he  felt  "ready 
to  take  up  arms  against  the  Writs  of  Assistance." 
One  day,  the  twenty-second  of  December  of  that 
year,  he  writes  in  his  journal:  "  At  home  with  my 
family,  thinking."  In  due  time,  something  came  of 
his  thinking.  He  wrote,  "  By  inactivity  we  discover 
cowardice,  and  too  much  respect  for  the  Act." 

The  Stamp  Act  was  dead  in  New  England  and 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  37 

in  all  America.     Very  soon  the  Ministry  were  glad 
to  bury  their  dead. 

It  was  in  such  a  spirit  that  Boston  met  the  Writs 
of  Assistance  and  the  Stamp  Act.  What  came  of 
the  resistance  ?  When  Parliament  came  together, 
the  "  great  commoner  "  said,  —  every  boy  knew  the 
passage  by  heart  when  I  went  to  school,  —  "I  re- 
joice that  America  has  resisted.  Three  millions  of 
people  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty  as  volun- 
tarily to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments 
to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest."  The  Ministry  still 
proposed  to  put  down  America  by  armies.  Mr.  Pitt 
said :  "  America,  if  she  fell,  would  fall  like  the  strong 
man.  She  would  embrace  the  pillars  of  the  state, 
and  pull  down  the  Constitution  along  with  her.  But 
she  would  not  fall."  "  I  would  advise,"  said  he, 
"  that  the  Stamp  Act  be  repealed,  absolutely,  totally, 
and  immediately ; "  "  that  the  reason  for  the  repeal 
be  assigned ;  that  it  was  founded  on  an  erroneous 
principle."  Repealed  it  was,  "absolutely,  totally, 
and  immediately." 

But  the  British  Ministry  still  insisted  on  taxation 
without  representation.  Massachusetts  continued 
her  opposition.  There  was  a  Merchants'  Meeting  in 
Boston  in  favor  of  freedom.  It  assembled  from  time 
to  time,  and  had  a  large  influence.  Men  agreed  not 
to  import  British  goods :  they  would  wear  their  old 
clothes  till  they  could  weave  new  ones  in  America, 

VOL.   I.  4 


38  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

and  kill  no  more  lambs  till  they  had  abundance  of 
wool.  Boston  made  a  non-importation  agreement. 
Massachusetts  wrote  a  "  circular  letter  "  to  the  other 
colonies,  asking  them  to  make  common  cause  with 
her,  —  a  circular  which  the  king  thought  "  of  the 
most  dangerous  and  factious  character."  On  the 
seventeenth  of  June,  1768,  the  town  of  Boston  in- 
structed its  four  representatives,  Otis,  Gushing, 
Adams,  and  Hancock :  "  It  is  our  unalterable  resolu- 
tion at  all  times  to  assert  and  vindicate  our  dear  and 
invaluable  rights,  at  the  utmost  hazard  of  our  lives 
and  fortunes."  *  This  seemed  to  promise  another 
"  seventeenth  of  June,"  if  the  IVIinistry  persisted  in 
their  course. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  May,  1770,  she  again  issued 
similar  instructions.  "James  I."  says  the  letter  of 
instruction,  "  more  than  once  laid  it  down,  that,  as 
it  was  atheism  and  blasphemy  in  a  creature  to  dis- 
pute what  the  Deity  may  do,  so  it  is  presumptuous 
and  sedition  in  a  subject  to  dispute  what  a  king  may 
do  in  the  height  of  his  powers."  "  Good  Christians," 
said  he,  "  will  be  content  with  God's  will  revealed 
in  his  word,  and  good  subjects  will  rest  in  the  king's 
will  revealed  in  his  law."  That  was  the  "  No  Higher 
Law  Doctrine"  of  the  time.  See  how  it  went  down 
at  Boston  in  1770.  "  Surely,"  said  the  people  of 
Boston,  in  town-meeting  assembled,  "nothing  except 

*  Town  Kecords  of  that  date. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  39 

the  ineffable  contempt  of  the  reigning  monarch  di- 
verted that  indignant  vengeance  which  would  other- 
wise have  made  his  illustrious  throne  to  tremble,  and 
hurled  the  royal  diadem  from  his  forfeit  head."  * 
Such  was  the  feeling  of  Boston  towards  a  govern- 
ment which  flouted  at  the  eternal  law  of  God. 

The  people  claimed  that  law  was  on  their  side ; 
even  Sir  Henry  Finch  having  said,  in  the  time  of 
Charles  I.,  "  The  king's  prerogative  stretcheth  not  to 
the  doing  of  any  wrong."  But,  Boston  said,  "  Had 
the  express  letter  of  the  law  been  less  favorable,  and 
were  it  possible  to  ransack  up  any  absurd,  obsolete 
notions  which  might  have  seemed  calculated  to  pro- 
pagate slavish  doctrines,  we  should  by  no  means 
have  been  influenced  to  forego  our  birthright ; "  for 
"  mankind  will  not  be  reasoned  out  of  their  feelings 
of  humanity."  "  We  remind  you,  that  the  further 
nations  recede  and  give  way  to  the  gigantic  strides 
of  any  powerful  despot,  the  more  rapidly  will  the 
fiend  advance  to  spread  wide  desolation."  "  It  is  now 
no  time  to  halt  between  two  opinions."  "  We  enjoin 
you  at  all  hazards  to  deport  .  .  .  like  the  faithful  rep- 
resentatives of  a  free-born,  awakened,  and  deter- 
mined people,  who,  being  impregnated  with  the  spirit 
of  liberty  in  conception,  and  nurtured  in  the  princi- 
ples of  freedom  from  their  infancy,  are  resolved  to 
breathe  the   same  celestial  ether,  till   summoned  to 

*  Town  Records. 


40  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

resign  the  heavenly  flame  by  that  omnipotent  God 
who  gave  it."  That  was  the  language  of  Boston  in 
in  1770.* 

True  there  were  men  who  took  the  other  side; 
some  of  them  from  high  and  honorable  convictions ; 
others  from  sordid  motives  ;  some  from  native  big- 
otry and  meanness  they  could  not  help.  But  the 
mass  of  the  people  went  for  the  rights  of  the  people. 
It  was  not  a  mere  matter  of  dollars  and  cents  that 
stirred  the  men  of  Massachusetts  then.  True  the 
people  had  always  been  thrifty,  and  looked  well  to 
the  "  things  of  this  world."  But  threepence  duty  on 
a  pound  of  tea,  six  farthings  on  a  gallon  of  molasses, 
was  not  very  burdensome  to  a  people  that  had  a 
school  before  there  was  any  four-footed  beast  above 
a  swine  in  the  colony,  —  a  people  that  once  taxed 
themselves  thirteen  shillings  and  eight  pence  in  a 
pound  of  income !  It  was  the  principle  they  looked 
at.  They  would  not  have  paid  three  barley-corns  on 
a  hogshead  of  sugar,  and  admit  the  right  of  Parlia- 
ment to  levy  the  tax.  This  same  spirit  extended  to 
the  other  colonies :  Virginia  and  Massachusetts 
stood  side  by  side ;  New  York  with  Boston. 

It  was  a  dark  day  for  New  England  when  the 
Stamp  Act  became  a  law ;  but  it  was  a  much  darker 
day  w^hen  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  passed  the  Con- 

*  Town  Records. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  41 

gress  of  the  United  States.  The  Acts  of  Trade  and 
the  Stamp  Act  were  the  work  of  foreign  hands,  of 
the  ministers  of  England,  not  America.  A  traitor 
of  New  Hampshire  was  thought  to  have  originated 
the  Stamp  Act ;  but  even  he  did  not  make  a  speech 
in  its  favor.  The  author  of  the  Act  was  never  within 
three  thousand  miles  of  Boston.  But  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  was  the  work  of  Americans  ;  it  had  its 
great  support  from  another  native  of  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  it  got  the  vote  of  the  member  for  Boston,  who 
faithfully  represented  the  money  which  sent  him 
there ;  though,  God  be  thanked,  not  the  men ! 

When  the  Stamp  Act  came  to  be  executed  in 
Boston,  the  ships  hung  their  flags  at  half-mast ;  the 
shops  were  shut,  the  bells  were  tolled ;  ship,  shop, 
and  church  all  joining  in  a  solidarity  of  affliction,  in 
one  unanimous  lament.  But,  when  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  came  to  Boston,  the  merchants  and  poli- 
ticians of  the  city  fired  a  hundred  guns  at  noonday, 
in  token  of  their  joy  I  How  times  have  changed! 
In  1765,  when  Huske  of  New  Hampshire  favored 
the  Stamp  Act,  and  Oliver  of  Boston  accepted  the 
office  of  distributor  of  stamps,  the  people  hung  their 
busts  in  effigy  on  Liberty-tree  ;  Oliver  must  ignomin- 
iously  forswear  his  office.  After  two  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts delegation  in  Congress  had  voted  for  the 
Missouri  Compromise  in  1819,  when  they  came  back 
to  Boston,  they  were  hissed  at  on  '  Change,  and  were 
both  of  them  abhorred  for  the  deed  which  spread 
4* 


42  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

slavery  west  of  the  great  river.  To  this  hour  their 
names  are  hateful  all  the  way  from  Boston  to  Lanes- 
boro'.  But  their  children  are  guiltless :  let  us  not 
repeat  the  fathers'  name.  But  what  was  the  Stamp 
Act  or  the  Missoviri  Compromise  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill !  One  was  looking  at  a  hedge,  the  other 
stealing  the  sheep  behind  it.  Yet  when  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  money  of  Boston,  who  voted  for 
the  bill,  returned,  he  was  flattered  and  thanked  by 
two  classes  of  men  ;  —  by  those  whom  money  makes 
"  respectable  "  and  prominent ;  by  those  whom  love 
of  money  makes  servile  and  contemptible.  When 
he  resigned  his  place,  Boston  sent  another,  with  the 
command,  "  Go  thou  and  do  likewise  ;  "  and  he  has 
just  voted  again  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, — he 
alone  of  all  the  delegation  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Stamp  Act  levied  a  tax  on  us  in  money,  and 
Boston  would  not  pay  a  cent,  hauled  down  the  flags, 
shut  up  the  shops,  tolled  the  church-bells,  hung  its 
authors  in  effigy,  made  the  third  officer  of  the  crown 
take  oath  not  to  keep  the  law,  cast  his  stamp-shop 
into  the  sea.  The  Slave  Act  levied  a  tax  in  men, 
and  Boston  fired  a  hundred  guns,  and  said,  "  We 
are  ready;  we  will  catch  fugitives  for  the  South.  It 
is  a  dirty  work,  too  dirty  for  any  but  Northern  hands  ; 
but  it  will  bring  us  clean  money."  Ship,  shop,  and 
church  seemed  to  feel  a  solidarity  of  interest  in  the 
measure ;  the  leading  newspapers  of  the  town  were 
full  of  glee. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  43 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  became  a  law  on  the 
eighteenth  of  September,  1850.  Eighty-five  years 
before  that  date,  there  was  a  town-meeting  in  Bos- 
ton, at  which  the  people  instructed  their  representa- 
tives in  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts.  It 
was  just  after  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Bos- 
ton told  her  servants  "  by  no  means  to  join  in  any 
measures  for  countenancing  and  assisting  in  the  exe- 
cution of  the  same  [the  Stamp  Act]  ;  but  to  use 
your  best  endeavors  in  the  General  Assembly  to  have 
the  inherent  and  unalienable  rights  of  the  people  of 
this  Province  asserted,  vindicated,  and  left  upon  the 
public  record,  that  posterity  may  never  have  reason 
to  charge  the  present  times  with  the  guilt  of  tamely 
giving  them  away."  * 

It  was  "  voted  unanimously  that  the  same  be 
accepted."  This  is  the  earliest  use  of  the  phrase 
"inherent  and  unalienable  rights  of  the  people" 
which  I  have  yet  found.  It  has  the  savor  of  .Tames 
Otis,  who  had  "  a  tongue  of  flame  and  the  inspiration 
of  a  seer."  It  dates  from  Boston,  and  the  eighteenth 
day  of  September,  eighty-five  years  before  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  In  1850  where  was 
the  town-meeting  of  '65?  James  Otis  died  without 
a  son ;  but  a  different  man  sought  to  "  fence  in  "  the 
Slave  Act,  and  fence  men  from  their  rights.f 

*  Town  Records.  f  Hon.  Harrison  Gray  Otis. 


44  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

The  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  a  sad 
event  to  the  colored  citizens  of  the  State.  At  that 
time  there  were  8,975  persons  of  color  in  Massachu- 
setts. In  thirty-six  hours  after  the  passage  of  the 
bill  was  known  here,  fiv^  and  thirty  colored  persons 
applied  to  a  well-known  philanthropist  in  this  city  for 
counsel.*  Before  sixty  hours  passed  by,  more  than 
forty  had  fled.  The  laws  of  Massachusetts  could  not 
be  trusted  to  shelter  her  own  children :  they  must 
flee  to  Canada.  "  This  arm,  hostile  to  tyrants,"  says 
the  motto  of  the  State,  "  seeks  rest  in  the  enjoyment 
of  liberty."  Then  it  ought  to  have  been  changed, 
and  read,  "  This  arm,  once  hostile  to  tyrants,  confed- 
erate with  them  now,  drives  off  her  citizens  to  for- 
eign climes  of  liberty." 

The  word  "  commissioner "  has  had  a  traditional 
hatred  ever  since  our  visitation  by  Sir  Edmund 
Andros ;  it  lost  none  of  its  odious  character  when 
it  became  again  incarnate  in  a  kidnapper.  With 
Slave  Act  commissioners  to  execute  the  bill,  with 
such  "  ruling "  as  we  have  known  on  the  Slave  Act 
bench,  such  swearing  by  "  witnesses  "  on  the  slave 
stand,  any  man's  freedom  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  kid- 
napper and  his  "commissioned"  attorney.  The  one 
can  manufacture  "  evidence "  or  "  enlarge  "  it,  the 
other  manufacture  "law;"  and,  wdth  such  an  admin- 

*  Mr.  Francis  Jackson. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  45 

istration  and  such  creatures  to  serve  its  wish,  what 
colored  man  was  safe  ?  Men  in  peril  have  a  keen 
instinct  of  their  danger;  the  dark -browed  mothers  in 
Boston,  they  wept  like  Rachel  for  her  first-born, 
refusing  to  be  comforted.  There  was  no  comfort  for 
them  save  in  flight :  that  must  be  not  in  the  winter, 
but  into  the  winter  of  Canada,  which  is  to  the  Afri- 
can what  our  rude  climate  is  to  the  goldfinch  and  the 
canary-bird. 

Some  of  the  colored  people  had  acquired  a  little 
property;  they  got  an  honest  living;  had  wives  and 
children,  and  looked  back  upon  the  horrors  of  sla- 
very, which  it  takes  a  woman's  affectionate  genius 
to  paint,  as  you  read  her  book ;  looked  on  them  as 
things  for  the  memory,  for  the  imagination,  not  as 
things  to  be  suffered  again.  But  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  said  to  every  black  mother,  "  This  may  be  your 
fate  ;  the  fate  of  your  sons  and  your  daughters."  It 
was  possible  to  all ;  probable  to  many  ;  certain  to 
some,  unless  they  should  flee. 

It  was  a  dark  bill  for  them ;  but  the  blackness  of 
the  darkness  fell  on  the  white  men.  The  colored 
men  were  only  to  bear  the  cross  ;  the  whites  made 
it.  I  would  take  the  black  man's  share  in  suffering 
the  Slave  Act,  rather  than  the  white  man's  sin  in 
making  it ;  ay,  as  I  would  rather  take  Hancock's 
than  Huske's  share  of  the  history  of  the  Stamp  Act. 
This  wicked  law  has  developed  in  the  Africans  some 
of  the  most  heroic  virtues :    in  the  Yankee  it  has 


46  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

brought  out  some  of  the  most  disgraceful  examples 
of  meanness  that  ever  dishonored  mankind. 

The  Boston  Massacre,  —  you  know  what  that 
was,  and  how  the  people  felt  when  a  hireling  soldiery, 
sent  here  to  oppress,  shot  down  the  citizens  of  Bos- 
ton on  the  fifth  of  March,  1770.  Then  the  blood  of 
America  flowed  for  the  first  time  at  the  touch  of 
British  steel.  But  that  deed  was  done  by  foreigners ; 
thank  God,  they  were  not  Americans  born  ;  done  by 
hirelings,  impressed  into  the  army  against  their  will, 
and  sent  here  without  their  consent.  It  was  done  in 
hot  blood ;  done  partly  in  self-defence,  after  much 
insult  and  wrong.  The  men  who  fired  the  shot 
were  brought  to  trial.  The  great  soul  of  John 
Adams  stood  up  to  defend  them,  Josiah  Quincy 
aiding  the  unpopular  work.  A  Massachusetts  jury 
set  the  soldiers  free,  —  they  only  obeyed  orders,  the 
soldier  is  a  tool  of  his  commander.  Such  was  the 
Boston  Massacre.  Yet  hear  how  John  Hancock 
spoke  on  the  fourth  anniversary  thereof,  when  passion 
had  had  time  to  pass  away :  — 

"  Tell  me,  ye  bloody  butchers  !  ye  villains  high 
and  low!  ye  wretches  who  contrived,  as  well  as  you 
who  executed,  the  inhuman  deed !  do  you  not  feel 
the  goads  and  stings  of  conscious  guilt  pierce 
through  your  savage  bosoms  ?  Though  some  of 
you  may  think  yourselves  exalted  to  a  height  that 
bids  defiance  to   the  arms  of   human  justice,  and 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  47 

others  shroud  yourselves  beneath  the  mask  of  hypoc- 
risy, and  build  your  hopes  of  safety  on  the  low  arts 
of  cunning,  chicanery,  and  falsehood  ;  yet  do  you 
not  sometimes  feel  the  gna^\dngs  of  that  worm 
which  never  dies  ?  Do  not  the  injured  shades  of 
Maverick,  Gray,  Caldwell,  Attucks,  and  Carr,  attend 
you  in  your  solitary  walks,  arrest  you  even  in  the 
midst  of  your  debaucheries,  and  fill  even  your  dreams 
with  terror  ? 

"  Ye  dark,  designing  knaves !  ye  murderers !  par- 
ricides !  how  dare  you  thread  upon  the  earth  which 
has  drank  in  the  blood  of  slaughtered  innocents, 
shed  by  your  wicked  hands  ?  How  dare  you  breathe 
that  air  which  wafted  to  the  ear  of  Heaven  the 
groans  of  those  who  fell  a  sacrifice  to  your  ac- 
cursed ambition  ?  But  if  the  laboring  earth  doth 
*  not  expand  her  jaws ;  if  the  air  you  breathe  is  not 
commissioned  to  be  the  minister  of  death ;  yet 
hear  it,  and  tremble !  the  eye  of  Heaven  penetrates 
the  darkest  chambers  of  the  soul ;  traces  the  lead- 
ing clue  through  all  the  labyrinths  which  your  in- 
dustrious folly  has  devised ;  and  you,  however  you 
may  have  screened  yourselves  from  human  eyes, 
must  be  arraigned,  must  lift  your  hands,  red  with  the 
blood  of  those  whose  deaths  you  have  procured,  at 
the  tremendous  bar  of  God." 

But  the  Boston  kidnapping  was  done  by  Boston 
men.  The  worst  of  the  kidnappers  were  natives  of 
the  spot.     It  was  done  by  volunteers,  not  impressed 


48  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

to  the  work,  but  choosing  their  profession, — loving 
the  wages  of  sin,  —  and  conscious  of  the  loathing, 
and  the  scorn  they  are  all  sure  to  get,  and  bequeathe  to 
their  issue.  They  did  it  deliberately ;  it  was  a  cold- 
blooded atrocity  :  they  did  it  aggressively,  not  in  self- 
defence,  but  in  self-degradation.  They  did  it  for 
their  pay :  let  them  have  it ;  verily,  they  shall  have 
their  reward. 


When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  became  a  law,  it 
seems  to  me  the  Governor  ought  to  have  assembled 
the  Legislature  ;  that  they  should  have  taken  ade- 
quate measures  for  protecting  the  eight  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  seventy-five  persons  thus  left  at  the 
mercy  of  any  kidnapper ;  that  officers  should  have 
been  appointed,  at  the  public  cost,  to  defend  these 
helpless  men,  and  a  law  passed,  punishing  any  one 
who  should  attempt  to  kidnap  a  man  in  this  Com- 
monwealth. Massachusetts  should  have  done  for 
Justice  what  South  Carolina  has  long  ago  done  for 
injustice.  But  Massachusetts  had  often  seen  her 
citizens  put  into  the  jails  of  the  North,  for  no  crime 
but  their  complexion,  and  looked  on  "with  a  drowsy 
yawn.  Once,  indeed,  she  did  send  two  persons,  one 
to  Charleston  and  the  other  to  New  Orleans,  to 
attend  to  this  matter :  both  of  them  were  turned  out 
of  the  South  with  insult  and  contempt.  After  that, 
Massachusetts  did  nothing ;  the  Commonwealth  did 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  49 

nothing ;  the  Commonwealth  did  not  even  scold : 
she  sat  mute  as  the  symbolic  fish  in  the  State 
House,  The  Bay  State  turned  non-resistant;  — 
"  passive  obedience "  should  have  been  the  motto 
then.  So,  when  a  bill  was  passed,  putting  the  liberty 
of  her  citizens  at  the  mercy  of  a  crew  of  legalized 
kidnappers,  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  did  noth- 
ing, Boston  fired  her  hundred  guns  under  the  very 
eyes  of  John  Hancock's  house  ;  her  servile  and  her 
rich  men  complimented  their  representative  for  voting 
away  the  liberty  of  nine  thousand  of  her  fellow- 
citizens.  Was  Boston  Massachusetts  ?  It  is  still 
the  Governor. 

As  the  Government  of  Massachusetts  did  nothing, 
the  next  thing  would  have  been  for  the  People  to 
come  together  in  a  great  mass  meeting,  and  decree, 
as  their  fathers  had  often  done,  that  so  unjust  a  law 
should  not  be  kept  in  the  old  Bay  State,  and  appoint 
a  committee  to  see  that  no  man  was  kidnapped  and 
carried  off;  and,  if  the  kidnappers  still  insisted  on 
kidnapping  our  brothers  here  in  Massachusetts,  the 
people  could  have  found  a  way  to  abate  that  nui- 
sance as  easily  as  to  keep  off  the  stamped  paper  in 
1765.  The  commissioners  of  the  Slave  Act  might 
as  easily  be  dealt  with  as  the  commissioners  of  the 
Stamp  Act. 

I  love  law,  and  respect  law,  and  should  be  slow  to 
violate  it.  I  would  suffer  much,  sooner  than  violate 
a  statute  that  was  simply  inexpedient.     There  is  no 

VOL.    I.  5 


50  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

natural  reason,  perhaps,  for  limiting  the  interest  of 
money  to  sLx  per  cent. ;  but  as  the  law  of  Massa- 
chusetts forbids  more,  I  would  not  take  more.  I 
should  hate  to  interrupt  the  course  of  law,  and  put 
violence  in  its  place. 

"  The  way  of  ancient  ordinance,  though  it  winds, 
Is  yet  no  devious  way.     Straightforward  goes 
The  lightning's  path,  and  straight  the  fearful  path 
Of  the  cannon-ball.     Direct  it  flies,  and  rapid; 
Shattering  that  it  may  reach,  and  shattering  what  it  reaches. 
My  son  !  the  road  the  human  being  travels,  — 
That  on  which  blessing  comes  and  goes,  —  doth  follow 
The  river's  course,  the  valley's  playful  windings  ; 
Curves  round  the  corn-field  and  the  hill  of  vines. 
Honoring  the  holy  bounds  of  property  ! 
And  thus  secure,  though  late,  leads  to  its  end." 

But  when  the  rulers  have  inverted  thek  function, 
and  enacted  wickedness  into  a  law  which  treads 
down  the  unalienable  rights  of  man  to  such  degree 
as  this,  then  I  know  no  ruler  but  God,  no  law  but 
natural  Justice.  I  tear  the  hateful  statute  of  kidnap- 
pers to  shivers ;  I  trample  it  underneath  my  feet.  I 
do  it  in  the  name  of  all  law ;  in  the  name  of  Justice 
and  of  Man  ;  in  the  name  of  the  dear  God. 

But  of  ail  this  nothing  was  done.  The  Governor 
did  not  assemble  the  Legislature,  as  he  would  if  a 
part  of  the  property  in  Massachusetts  had  thus  been 
put  at  the  mercy  of  legalized  ruffians.     There  was 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  51 

no  convention  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  True, 
there  was  a  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall,  a  meeting 
chiefly  of  anti-slavery  men  ;  leading  Freesoilers  were 
a  little  afraid  of  it,  though  some  of  them  came  hon- 
orably forward.  A  venerable  man  put  his  name  at 
the  head  of  the  signers  of  the  call,  and  wrote  a 
noble-spirited  letter  to  the  meeting ;  Josiah  Quincy 
was  a  Faneuil  Hall  name  in  1850,  as  well  as  in 
1765.  It  was  found  a  little  difficult  to  get  what  in 
Boston  is  called  a  "  respectable "  man  to  preside. 
Yet  one  often  true  sat  in  the  chair  that  night,  — 
Charles  F.  Adams  did  not  flinch,  when  you  wanted 
a  man  to  stand  fire.  A  brave,  good  minister,  Avhose 
large  soul  disdains  to  be  confined  to  sect  or  party, 
came  in  from  Cambridge,  and  lifted  up  his  voice  to 
the  God  who  brought  up  Israel  out  of  the  iron  house 
of  bondage,  and  our  fathers  from  thraldom  in  a 
strange  land ;  thanking  Him  who  created  all  men  in 
His  own  image,  and  of  one  blood.  Charles  Lowell's 
prayer  for  all  mankind  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 
The  meeting  was  an  honor  to  the  men  who  com- 
posed it.  The  old  spirit  was  there ;  philanthropy, 
which  never  fails ;  justice,  that  is  not  weary  with 
continual  defeat ;  and  faith  in  God,  which  is  sure  to 
triumph  at  the  last.  But  what  a  reproach  was  the 
meeting  to  Boston  !  "  Respectability  "  was  deter- 
mined to  kidnap. 

At  that  meeting  a  Committee  of  Vigilance   was 
appointed,  and  a  very    vigilant   committee    it    has 


52  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

proved  itself,  having  saved  the  liberty  of  three  or 
four  hundred  citizens  of  Boston.  Besides,  it  has 
done  many  things  not  to  be  spoken  of  now.  I 
know  one  of  its  members  who  has  helped  ninety -five 
fugitives  out  of  the  United  States.  It  would  not  be 
well  to  mention  his  name, — he  has  "levied  war" 
too  often,  —  the  good  God  knows  it.* 

Other  towns  in  the  State  did  the  same  thing. 
Vigilance  Committees  got  on  foot  in  most  of  the 
great  towns,  in  many  of  the  small  ones.  In  some 
places,  all  the  people  rose  up  against  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill ;  the  whole  town  a  vigilance  committee. 
The  country  was  right ;  off  of  the  pavement.  Lib- 
erty was  the  watchword ;  on  the  pavement,  it  was 
Money.  But  the  Government  of  Massachusetts  did 
nothing.  Could  the  eight  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  seventy-five  colored  persons  affect  any  election  ? 
Was  their  vote  worth  bidding  for  ? 

The  controlling  men  of  the  Whig  party  and  of  the 
Democratic  party,  they  cither  did  nothing  at  all,  or 
else  went  over  in  favor  of  kidnapping ;  some  of  them 
had  a  natural  proclivity  that  way,  and  went  over 
"  with  alacrity." 

The  leading  newspapers  in  the  great  towns, — 
they,  of  course,  went  on  the  side  of  inhumanity, 
with  few  honorable  exceptions.  The  political  pa- 
pers thought  kidnapping  would  "  save  the  Union  ; " 

*  It  is  not  vet  safe  to  mention  his  name.    Feb.  22, 1855  ! 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  53 

the  commercial  papers  thought  it  would  "  save 
trade,"  the  great  object  for  which  the  Union  was 
established. 

How  differently  had  Massachusetts  met  the  Acts 
of  Trade  and  the  Stamp  Act !  How  are  the  mighty 
fallen  !  Yet,  if  you  could  have  got  their  secret  bal- 
lot, I  think  fifteen  out  of  every  twenty  voters,  even 
in  Boston,  would  have  opposed  the  law.  But  the 
leading  politicians  and  the  leading  merchants  were 
in  favor  of  the  bill,  and  the  execution  of  it. 

There  are  two  political  parties  in  America  :  one  of 
them  is  very  large  and  well  organized ;  that  is  the 
Slave-soil  party.  It  has  two  gi-eat  subdivisions ;  one 
is  called  Whig,  the  other  Democratic :  together  they 
make  up  the  great  national  Slave-soil  party.  It  was 
the  desire  of  that  party  to  extend  slavery  ;  making  a 
national  sin  out  of  a  sectional  cvirse.  They  wished 
to  "  reannex  "  Massachusetts  to  the  department  of 
slave  soil,  and  succeeded.  We  know  the  history  of 
that  party :  who  shall  tell  the  future  of  its  opponent  ? 
There  will  be  a  to-morrow  after  to-day. 

The  practical  result  was  what  the  leading  men  of 
Boston  desired  :  soon  we  had  kidnappers  in  Boston. 
Some  ruffians  came  here  from  Georgia,  to  kfdnap 
William  and  Ellen  Craft.  Among  them  came  a 
jailer  from  Macon,  a  man  of  infamous  reputation, 
and  character  as  bad  as  its  repute ;  notoriously  a 
cruel  man,  and  hateful  on  that  account  even  in  Geor- 
5* 


54  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

gia.  In  the  handbills,  his  face  was  described  as 
"  uncommon  bad."  It  was  worthy  of  the  description. 
I  saw  the  face ;  it  looked  like  total  depravity  incar- 
nate in  a  born  kidnapper.  He  was  not  quite  wel- 
come in  Boston ;  Massachusetts  had  not  then 
learned  to  "  conquer  her  prejudices,"  yet  he  found 
friends,  got  "  a  sort  of  a  lawyer  "  to  help  him  kid- 
nap a  man  and  his  wife  :  a  fee  will  hire  such  men 
any  day.  He  was  a  welcome  guest  at  the  United 
States  Hotel,  which,  however,  got  a  little  tired  of  his 
company,  and  warned  him  off'.  The  commissioner 
first  applied  to  for  aid  in  this  business  seemed  to  ex- 
hibit some  signs  of  a  conscience,  and  appeared  a  lit- 
tle averse  to  stealing  a  man.  The  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee put  their  eye  on  the  kidnapper :  he  was  glad 
to  escape  out  of  Boston  with  a  whole  skin.  He 
sneaked  off  in  a  private  way ;  went  back  to  Georgia  ; 
published  his  story,  partly  true,  false  in  part ;  got 
into  a  quarrel  in  the  street  at  Macon,  —  I  traced  out 
his  wriggling  trail  for  some  distance  back, — it  was 
not  the  first  brawl  he  had  been  in ;  was  stabbed  to 
what  is  commonly  called  "  the  heart,"  and  fell  un- 
mistakably dead.  Some  worthy  persons  had  told 
him,  if  he  went  to  Boston,  he  would  "  rot  in  a  Mas- 
sachusetts jail;"  others,  that  they  "hoped  it  would 
turn  out  so,  for  such  an  errand  deserved  such  an 
end."  Poor  men  of  Georgia  I  they  knew  the  Boston 
of  1765,  not  of  1850  ;  —  the  town  of  the  Stamp  Act, 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  55 

ruled  by  Select  Men  ;  not  the  city  of  the  Slave  Act, 
ruled  by  a  "  Mayor."  Hughes  came  to  save  the 
«  Union ! " 

That  time  the  kidnappers  went  off  without  their 
prey.  Somebody  took  care  of  Ellen  Craft,  and  Wil- 
liam took  care  of  himself.  They  were  parishioners 
of  mine.  Mr.  Craft  was  a  tall,  brave  man ;  his 
countrymen,  not  nobler  than  he,  were  once  bishops 
of  Hippo  and  of  Carthage.  He  armed  himself, 
pretty  well  too.  I  inspected  his  weapons  :  it  was 
rather  new  business  for  me ;  New  England  ministers 
have  not  done  much  in  that  line  since  the  Revolu- 
tion. His  powder  had  a  good  kernel,  and  he  kept  it 
dry  ;  his  pistols  were  of  excellent  proof,  the  barrels 
true  and  clean ;  the  trigger  went  easy ;  the  caps 
would  not  hang  fire  at  the  snap.  I  tested  his  pon- 
iard ;  the  blade  had  a  good  temper,  stiff  enough,  yet 
springy  withal ;  the  point  was  sharp.  There  was  no 
law  for  him  but  the  Law  of  Nature ;  he  was  armed 
and  equipped  "  as  that  law  directs."  He  walked  the 
the  streets  boldly  ;  but  the  kidnappers  did  not  dare 
touch  him.  Some  persons  offered  to  help  Mr.  Craft 
purchase  himself.  He  said,  "  I  will  not  give  the 
man  two  cents  for  his  '  right '  to  me.  I  will  buy 
myself,  not  with  gold,  but  iron  !  "  That  looked  like 
"levying  war,"  not  like  conquering  his  prejudices 
for  liberty  I  William  Craft  did  not  obey  "  with  alac- 
rity." He  stood  his  ground  till  the  kidnappers  had 
fled ;  then  he  also  must  flee.     Boston  was  no  home 


56  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

for  him.  One  of  her  most  eminent  ministers  had 
said,  if  a  fugitive  came  to  him,  "  I  would  drive  him 
away  from  my  own  door." 

William  and  Ellen  Craft  were  at  the  "  World's 
Fair,"  specimens  of  American  manufactures,  the 
working-tools  of  the  South  ;  a  proof  of  the  democ- 
racy of  the  American  State  ;  part  of  the  "  outward 
evidences "  of  the  Christianity  of  the  American 
church.  "  It  is  a  great  country,"  whence  a  Boston 
clergyman  would  drive  William  Craft  from  his 
door !  America  did  not  compete  very  well  with  the 
European  States  in  articles  sent  to  the  Fair.  A 
"  reaping  machine  "  was  the  most  quotable  thing ; 
then  a  "  Greek  slave  "  in  marble  ;  next  an  American 
slave  in  flesh  and  blood.  America  was  the  only 
contributor  of  slaves  :  she  had  the  monopoly  of  the 
article  ;  it  is  the  great  export  of  Virginia,  —  it  was 
right  to  exhibit  a  specimen  at  the  World's  Fair. 
Visitors  went  to  Westminster  Abbey,  and  saw  the 
monument  of  marble  which  Massachusetts  erected 
to  Lord  George  Howe,  and  thence  to  the  Crystal 
Palace  to  see  the  man  and  woman  whom  Massa- 
chusetts would  not  keep  from  being  kidnapped  in 
her  Capital. 

In  due  time  came  the  "  Union  meeting,"  on  the 
twenty-sixth  day  of  November,  1850,  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  in  front  of  the  pictures  of  Samuel  Adams  and 
John  Hancock,  —  in  the  hall  which  once  rocked  to 
the   patriotism  of  James    Otis,  thundering   against 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  57 

Acts  of  Trade  and  Writs  of  Assistance,  "  more  elo- 
quent than  Chatham  or  Burke."  The  Union  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  face  and  eyes  of  George  Wash- 
ington. 

You  remember  the  meeting.  It  was  rather  a 
remarkable  platform  ;  uniformly  "  Hunker,"  but  de- 
cidedly heterogeneous.  Yet  sin  abolishes  all  his- 
torical and  personal  distinctions.  Kidnapping,  like 
misery,  "  makes  strange  bedfellows."  Three  things 
all  the  speakers  on  that  occasion  developed  in  com- 
mon :  A  hearty  abhorrence  of  the  Right ;  a  uniform 
contempt  for  the  Eternal  Law  of  God ;  a  common 
desire  to  kidnap  a  man.  After  all,  the  platform  did 
not  exhibit  so  strange  a  medley  as  it  seemed  at  first : 
the  difference  in  the  speakers  was  chiefly  cutaneous, 
only  skin-deep.  The  reading  and  the  speaking,  the 
whining  and  the  thundering,  were  all  to  the  same 
tune.  Pirates,  who  have  just  quarrelled  about  divid- 
ing the  spoil,  are  of  one  heart  when  it  comes  to 
plundering  and  killing  a  man. 

That  was  a  meeting  for  the  encouragement  of 
kidnapping ;  not  from  the  love  of  kidnapping  in  it- 
self, but  for  the  recompense  of  reward.  I  will  not 
insult  the  common  sense  of  respectable  men  with 
supposing  that  the  talk  about  the  "  dissolution  of 
the  Union,"  and  the  cry,  "  The  Union  is  in  peril  this 
hour,"  was  any  thing  more  than  a  stage-trick,  which 
the  managers  doubtless  thought  was  "  well  got  up." 
So  it  was ;  but,  I  take  it,  the   spectators  who  ap- 


58  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

plauded,  as  well  as  the  actors  who  gi-imaced,  knew 
that  the  "  lion "  was  no  beast,  but  only  "  Simon 
Snug  the  joiner."  Indeed,  the  lion  himself  often 
told  us  so.  However,  I  did  know  two  very  "  re- 
spectable "  men  of  Boston,  who  actually  believed 
the  Union  was  in  danger  ;  only  two,  —  but  they  are 
men  of  such  incomprehensible  exiguity  of  intellect, 
that  their  names  would  break  to  pieces  if  spoken 
loud. 

Well,  the  meeting,  in  substance,  told  this  truth  : 
"  Boston  is  willing ;  you  may  come  here,  and  kidnap 
any  black  man  you  choose.  We  will  lend  you  the 
marshal,  the  commissioner,  the  tools  of  perjury, 
supple  courts  of  law,  clergymen  to  bless  the  transac- 
tion, and  editors  to  defend  it !  "  That  was  the  plain 
English  meaning  of  the  meeting,  of  the  resolutions 
and  the  speeches.  It  was  so  understood  North  and 
South. 

At  the  meeting  itself  it  w^as  declared  that  the 
Union  was  at  the  last  gasp ;  but  the  next  morning 
the  political  doctors,  the  "  medicine-men "  of  our 
mythology,  declared  the  old  lady  out  of  danger. 
She  sat  up  that  day,  and  received  her  friends.  The 
meeting  was  "  great  medicine ; "  the  crisis  was 
passed.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  could  "  be  exe- 
cuted in  Boston,"  where  the  Writs  of  Assistance 
and  the  Stamp  Act  had  been  a  dead  letter :  a  man 
might  be  kidnapped  in  Boston  any  day. 

But  the  meeting  was  far  from  unanimous  at  the 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  59 

end.  At  the  beginning  a  manly  speech  would  have 
turned  the  majority  in  favor  of  the  right.  In  No- 
vember, 1850,  half  a  dozen  rich  men  might  have 
turned  Boston  against  the  wicked  law.  But  their 
interest  lay  the  other  side  ;  and  "  where  the  treasure 
is,  there  will  the  heart  be  also."  Boston  is  bad 
enough,  but  bad  only  in  spots ;  at  that  time  the 
spots  showed,  and  some  men  thought  all  Boston 
was  covered  with  the  smallpox  of  the  Union  meet- 
ing :  the  scars  will  mark  the  faces  of  only  a  few.  I 
wish  I  could  heal  those  faces,  which  will  have  an 
ugly  look  in  the  eyes  of  posterity. 

The  practical  result  of  the  meeting  was  what  it 
was  designed  to  be  :  soon  we  had  other  kidnappers 
in  Boston.  This  time  they  found  better  friends  : 
like  consorteth  with  like.  A  certain  lawyer's  office 
in  Boston  became  a  huckstery  of  kidnappers'  war- 
rants. Soon  the  kidnappers  had  Shadrach  in  their 
fiery  furnace,  heated  seven  times  hotter  than  before 
for  William  and  Ellen  Craft.  But  the  Lord  de- 
livered him  out  of  their  clutch  ;  and  he  now  sings 
"  God  save  the  Queen,"  in  token  of  his  delivery  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  kidnappers  of  "  Republican  " 
Babylon.  Nobody  knows  how  he  was  delivered ; 
the  rescue  was  officially  declared  "  levying  war,"  the 
rescuers  guilty  of  "  treason."  But,  wonderful  to  say, 
after  all  the  violations  of  law  by  the  Court,  and  all 
the  browbeating  by  the  attorneys,  and  all  the  per- 
jury and  other  "  amendments  and  enlargement  of 


60  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

« 

testimony "  by  witnesses,  not  a  man  was  found 
guilty  of  any  crime.  Spite  of  "  Union  meetings," 
there  is  some  respect  for  Massachusetts  law ;  spite 
of  judicial  attempts  to  pack  a  jury,  it  is  still  the 
great  safeguard  of  the  people  ;  spite  of  preaching, 
there  is  some  virtue  left ;  and,  though  a  minister 
would  send  back  his  mother  into  slavery,  a  Massa- 
chusetts jury  will  not  send  a  man  to  jail  for  such  an 
act  as  that. 

The  case  of  Shadrach  was  not  the  last.  Kidnap- 
pers came  and  kidnappers  went :  for  a  long  time 
they  got  no  spoil.  I  need  not  tell,  must  not  tell, 
how  they  were  evaded,  or  what  help  came,  always 
in  season.  The  Vigilance  Committee  did  not  sleep ; 
it  was  in  "  permanent  session  "  much  of  the  whole 
winter ;  its  eyes  were  in  every  place,  beholding  the 
evil  and  the  good.  The  Government  at  Washing- 
ton did  not  like  this  state  of  things,  and  stimulated 
the  proper  persons,  as  the  keeper  of  a  menagerie  in 
private  stirs  up  the  hyenas  and  the  cougars  and  the 
wolves,  from  a  safe  distance.  There  was  a  talk  of 
"  Sherman's  flying-artillery  "  alighting  at  Boston  ; 
but  it  flew  over  and  settled  at  Newport,  I  think. 
Next  there  was  to  be  a  "  garrison  of  soldiers  "  to 
enforce  the  law ;  but  the  men  in  buckram  did  not 
appear.  Then  a  "  seventy-four  gun  ship  was  com- 
"ing,"  to  bombard  Southack  street,  I  suppose.  Still 
it  was  determined  that  the  "  Union  "  was  not  quite 
safe ;   it  was   in   danger   of  a   "  dissolution ; "   the 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  61 

"  medicine-men  "  of  politics  and  commerce  looked 
grave.  True,  the  Union  had  been  "  saved  "  again 
and  again,  till  her  "  salvation  "  was  a  weariness ; 
she  "  was  nothing  bettered,  but  rather  grew  worse." 
All  winter  long,  the  Union  was  reported  as  in  a 
chronic  spasm  of  "  dissolution."  So  the  "  medicine- 
men "  prescribed :  A  man  kidnapped  in  Massachu- 
setts, to  be  taken  at  the  South  ;  with  one  scruple 
of  lawyer,  and  two  scruples  of  clergyman.  That 
would  set  the  Union  on  her  legs.  Boston  was  to 
furnish  all  this  medicine. 

It  was  long  before  this  city  could  furnish  a  kid- 
napped man.  The  Vigilance  Committee  parried  the 
blow  aimed  at  the  neck  of  the  fugitive.  The  country 
was  on  our  side,  —  gave  us  money,  help,  men  when 
needed.  The  guardians  of  Boston  could  not  bear 
the  taunt  that  she  had  not  sent  back  a  slave.  New 
York  had  been  before  her ;  the  "  City  of  Brotherly 
Love,"  the  home  of  Penn  and  Franklin,  had  assisted 
in  kidnapping ;  it  went  on  vigorously  under  the  arm 
of  a  judge  who  appropriately  bears  the  name  of  the 
great  first  murderer.  No  judge  could  be  better  enti- 
tled ;  Kane  and  kidnapping  are  names  conjurioog 
well.  Should  Boston  delay  ?  What  a  reproach,  to 
the  fair  fame  of  her  merchants !  The  history  of  Bos- 
ton was  against  them ;  America  has  not  yet  forgotten 
the  conduct  of  Boston  in  the  matter  of  the  Stamp 
Act  and  Acts  of  Trade.  She  was  deeply  guilty  of 
the  Revolutionary  War ;  she  still  kept  its  Cradle  of 

VOL.  I.  6 


62  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

Liberty,  and  the  bones  of  Adams  and  Hancock, — 
dangerous  relics  in  any  soil ;  they  ought  to  have 
been  "sent  back"  at  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill,  and  Faneuil  Hall  demolished.  Bunker 
Hill  Monument  was  within  sight.  Boston  was  sus- 
pected of  not  liking  to  kidnap  a  man.  What  a 
reproach  it  was  to  her!  —  8,975  colored  persons  in 
Massachusetts,  and  not  a  fugitive  returned  from 
Boston.  September  passed  by,  October,  November, 
December,  January,  February,  March  ;  not  a  slave 
sent  back  in  seven  months  I  What  a  disgrace  to  the 
Government  of  Boston,  which  longed  to  steal  a  man; 
to  the  representative  of  Boston,  who  had  voted  for 
the  theft ;  to  the  Union  Meeting,  which  loved  the 
Slave  Act;  to  Mr.  Webster,  who  thought  Massachu- 
setts would  obey  "  with  alacrity,"  —  his  presidential 
stock  looked  down  ;  to  his  kidnappers,  who  had  not 
yet  fleshed  their  fangs  on  a  fugitive.  What  a  re- 
proach to  the  churches  of  commerce,  and  their 
pati'on.  Saint  Hunker !  One  minister  would  drive  a 
fugitive  from  his  door ;  another  send  back  his  own 
mother:  what  was  their  divinity  worth,  if,  in  seven 
months,  they  could  not  convert  a  single  parishioner, 
and  celebrate  the  sacrament  of  kidnapping! 

Yet,  after  all,  not  a  slave  went  back  from  old  Bos- 
ton, though  more  than  four  hundred  fled  out  of  the 
city  fi'om  the  stripes  of  America,  and  got  safe  to  the 
Cross  of  England  ;  not  a  slave  went  back  from  Bos- 
ton, spite  of  her  representative,  her  Government,  her 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  63 

Union  Meeting,  and  her  clerical  advice.  She  would 
comfort  herself  against  this  sorrow,  but  her  heart  was 
faint  in  her.  Well  might  she  say,  "  The  harvest  is 
passed,  the  winter  is  ended,  and  we  are  not  saved." 

Yet  the  good  men  still  left  in  Boston,  their  heart 
not  wholly  corrupt  with  politics  and  lust  of  gain, 
rejoiced  that  Boston  was  innocent  of  the  great  trans- 
gression of  her  sister-cities,  and  thought  of  the  proud 
days  of  old.  But  wily  men  came  here :  it  was 
alleged  they  came  from  the  South.  They  went  round 
to  the  shops  of  jobbers,  to  the  mills  of  manufacturers, 
and  looked  at  large  quantities  of  goods,  pretending  a 
desire  to  purchase  to  a  great  amount ;  now  it  was  a 
"  large  amount  of  domestics,"  then  "  a  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  worth  of  locomotives."  "  But  then," 
said  the  wily  men,  "  we  do  not  like  to  purchase  here ; 
you  are  in  favor  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union." 
"  Oh,  no,"  says  the  Northerner ;  "  not  at  all."  '^  But 
you  hate  the  South,"  rejoins  the  feigned  customer. 
"  By  no  means,"  retorts  the  dealer.  "  But  you  have 
not  sent  back  a  slave,"  concludes  the  customer, "  and 
I  cannot  trade  with  you." 

The  trick  was  tried  in  several  places,  and  suc- 
ceeded. The  story  got  abroad  ;  it  was  reported  that 
"  large  orders  intended  for  Boston  had  been  sent  to 
New  York,  on  account  of  the  acquiescence  of  the 
latter  city  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill."  Trade  is 
timid  ;  gold  is  a  cowardly  metal ;  how  the  tinsel 
trembles  when  there   is  thunder  in   the   sky!     Em- 


64  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

ployers  threatened  their  workmen :  "  You  must  not 
attend  anti-slavery  meetings,  nor  speak  against  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  The  Union  is  in  imminent 
danger." 

The  country  was  much  more  hostile  to  man-steal- 
ing than  the  city :  it  mocked  at  the  kidnappers. 
"  Let  them  try  their  game  in  Essex  county,"  said 
some  of  the  newspapers  in  that  quarter.  Thereupon 
commercial  and  political  journals  prepared  to  "  cut 
off  the  supplies  of  the  country,"  and  "  reduce  the 
farmers  and  mechanics  to  submission."  It  was  pub- 
licly advised  that  Boston  should  not  trade  with  the 
obnoxious  towns  ;  nobody  must  buy  shoes  at  Lynn. 
In  1774,  the  Boston  Port  Bill  shut  up  our  harbor :  it 
was  a  punishment  for  making  tea  against  the  law. 
But  "  penurious  old  Salem,"  whose  enterprise  is 
equalled  by  nothing  but  her  "  severe  economy," 
opened  her  safe  and  commodious  harbor  to  the  mer- 
chants of  Boston,  with  no  cost  of  wharfage  I  But  the 
Boston  of  1850  was  not  equal  to  the  "  penurious  old 
Salem"  of  1774! 

It  was  now  indispensable  that  a  slave  should  be 
sent  back.  Trade  was  clamorous  ;  the  administra- 
tion were  urgent ;  the  administration  of  Mr.  Fillmore 
was  in  peril;  Mr.  Webster's  reputation  for  slave- 
hunting  was  at  stake;  the  Union  was  in  danger; 
even  the  Marshal's  commission  was  on  the  point  of 
"  dissolution,"  it  is  said.  A  descent  was  planned 
upon  New  Bedford,  where  the  followers  of  Fox  and 


,THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  65 

Penn  had  long  hid  the  outcast.  That  attempt  came 
to  nothing.  The  Vigilance  Committee  made  a  long 
arm,  and  "  tolled  the  bell "  of  Liberty  Hall  in  New 
Bedford.  Yovi  remember  the  ghastly  efforts  at  mirth 
made  by  some  newspapers  on  the  occasion.  "  The 
VigUance  Committee  knows  every  thing,"  said  one 
of  the  kidnappers. 

It  now  became  apparent  that  Boston  must  furnish 
the  victim.  But  some  of  the  magistrates  of  Boston 
thought  the  Marshal  was  too  clumsy  to  succeed,  and 
offered  him  the  aid  of  the  city.  So,  on  the  night  of 
the  third  of  April,  Thomas  Sims  was  kidnapped  by 
two  police-officers  of  Boston,  pretending  to  the  by- 
standers that  he  was  making  a  disturbance,  and  to 
him  that  he  was  arrested  for  theft.  He  was  had  into 
the  "  Court"  of  the  kidnappers  the  next  morning, 
charged  with  being  a  slave  and  a  fugitive. 

You  will  ask.  How  did  it  happen  that  Sims  did 
not  resist  the  rutfians  who  seized  him  ?  He  did 
resist ;  but  he  was  a  rash,  heedless  young  fellow, 
and  had  a  most  unlucky  knife,  which  knocked  at  a 
kidnapper's  bosom,  but  could  not  open  the  door.  He 
was  very  imperfectly  armed.  He  underwent  what 
was  called  a  "  trial,"  a  trial  without  "  due  form  of 
law;"  without  a  jury,  and  without  a  judge  ;  before  a 
Slave  Act  Commissioner,  who  was  to  receive  twice 
as  much  for  sacrificing  a  victim  as  for  acquitting  a 
man !  The  Slave  Commissioner  decided  that  Mr. 
Sims  was  a  slave.  I  take  it,  nobody  beforehand 
6* 


66  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

doubted  that  the  decision  would  be  against  the  man. 
The  commissioner  was  to  receive  five  dollars  more 
for  such  a  decision.  The  law  was  framed  with 
exquisite  subtlety.  Five  dollars  is  a  small  sum,  very 
small ;  but  things  are  great  or  little  by  comparison. 

But,  in  doing  justice  to  this  remarkable  provision 
of  the  bill,  let  me  do  no  injustice  to  the  commis- 
sioner, who  decided  that  a  man  was  not  a  man,  but 
a  thing.  I  am  told  that  he  would  not  kidnap  a  man 
for  five  dollars;  I  am  told,  on  good  authority,  that  it 
would  be  "  no  temptation  to  him."  I  believe  it ;  for 
he  also  is  "  a  man  and  a  brother."  I  have  heard 
good  deeds  of  his  doing,  and  believe  that  he  did 
them.  Total  depravity  does  not  get  incarnated  in 
any  man.  It  is  said  that  he  refused  both  of  the  fees 
in  this  case ;  the  one  for  the  "  examination,"  and  the 
other  for  the  actual  enslaving  of  Mr.  Sims.  I  believe 
this  also :  there  is  historical  precedent  on  record  for 
casting  down  a  larger  fee,  not  only  ten  but  thirty 
pieces  of  silver,  likewise  "  the  price  of  blood,"  money 
too  base  for  a  Jew  to  put  in  the  public  chest  eighteen 
hundred  years  ago  I 

A  noble  defence  was  made  for  Mr.  Sims  by  three 
eminent  lawyers,  Messrs.  Charles  G.  Loring,  Robert 
Rantoul,  Jr.,  and  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  all  honorable 
and  able  men.  Their  arguments  were  })roductions 
of  no  common  merit.  But  of  what  use  to  j^lead 
law  in  such  a  "  Court "  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ; 
to  appeal  to  the  Constitution,  when  the  statute  is 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  67 

designed  to  thwart  justice,  and  to  destroy  "  the 
blessings  of  liberty?"  Of  what  avail  to  appeal  to 
the  natural  principles  of  right  before  the  tool  of  an 
administration  which  denies  that  there  is  any  law  of 
God  higher  than  the  schemes  of  a  politician  ?  It  all 
came  to  nothing.  A  reasonable  man  would  think 
that  the  human  body  and  soul  were  "  free  papers  " 
from  the  Almighty,  sealed  with  "the  image  and 
likeness  of  God ; "  but,  of  course,  in  a  kidnapper's 
"  Court,"  such  a  certificate  is  of  no  value. 

You  all  know  the  public  account  of  the  kidnap- 
ping and  "  trial  "  of  Mr.  Sims.  What  is  known  to 
me  in  private,  it  is  not  time  to  tell :  T  will  tell  that  to 
your  children  ;  no !  perhaps  your  grandchildren. 

You  know  that  the  arrest  was  illegal,  the  officers 
of  Massachusetts  being  forbidden  by  statute  to  help 
arrest  a  fugitive  slave.  Besides,  it  appears  that  they 
had  no  legal  warrant  to  make  the  arrest :  they  lied, 
and  pretended  to  arrest  him  for  another  alleged 
offence.  He  was  on  "  trial  "  nine  days,  —  arraigned 
before  a  Slave  Act  Commissioner,  —  and  never  saw 
the  face  of  a  judge  or  any  judicial  officer  but  once. 
Before  he  could  be  removed  to  slavery,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  should  be 
violated ;  that  its  letter  should  be  broken ;  that 
the  laws  of  Massachusetts  should  be  cloven  down  ; 
its  officers,  its  courts,  and  its  people,  treated  with 
contempt.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  could  only  be 
enforced  by  the  bayonet. 


68  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

You  remember  the  aspect  of  Boston,  from  the 
fourth  of  April  till  the  twelfth.  You  saw  the  chains 
about  the  Court  House  ;  you  saw  the  police  of  Bos- 
ton, bludgeons  in  their  hands,  made  journeymen  kid- 
nappers against  their  will.  Poor  fellows !  I  pitied 
them.  I  knew  their  hearts.  Once  on  a  terrible 
time, — it  was  just  as  they  were  taking  Mr.  Sims 
from  the  Court  House,  a  year  ago  this  day,  —  some- 
body reproached  them,  calling  them  names  fitting 
their  conduct,  and  I  begged  him  to  desist ;  a  poor 
fellow  clutched  my  arm,  and  said,  "  For  God's  sake, 
don't  scold  us  :  we  feel  worse  than  you  do  !  "  But 
with  the  money  of  Boston  against  them,  the  leading 
clergy  defending  the  crime  against  human  nature, 
the  City  Government  using  its  brief  authority, 
squandering  the  treasure  of  Boston  and  its  intoxicat- 
ing drink  for  the  same  purpose,  what  could  a  police- 
officer  or  a  watchman  do  but  obey  orders  ?  They 
did  it  most  unwillingly  and  against  their  conscience. 

You  remember  the  conduct  of  the  Courts  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  the  Supreme  Court  seemed  to  love  the 
chains  around  the  Court  House ;  for  one  by  one  the 
judges  bowed  and  stooped  and  bent  and  cringed  and 
curled  and  crouched  down,  and  crawled  under  the 
chains.  Who  judges  justly  must  himself  be  free. 
What  could  you  expect  of  a  court  sitting  behind 
chains  ;  of  judges  crawling  under  them  to  go  to  their 
own  place  ?  —  the  same  that  you  found.  It  was  a 
very  appropriate  spectacle,  —  the  Southern  chain  on 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  69 

the  neck  of  the  Massachusetts  Court.  If  the  Bay 
State  were  to  send  a  man  into  bondage,  it  was 
proper  that  the  Court  House  should  be  in  chains, 
and  the  judges   should  go  under. 

You  remember  the  "  soldiers  "  called  out,  the  cele- 
brated "  Sims  Brigade,"  liquored  at  Court  Square 
and  lodged  at  Faneviil  Hall.  Do  you  remember 
when  soldiers  were  quartered  in  that  place  before  ? 
[t  was  in  1768,  when  hireling  "  regulars "  came, 
slaves  themselves,  and  sent  by  the  British  Ministry 
to  "  makd  slaves  of  us  all ; "  to  sheathe  their  swords 
"  in  the  bowels  of  their  countrymen  I  "  That  was  a 
sight  for  the  eyes  of  John  Hancock,  —  the  "  Sims 
Brigade,"  in  Faneuil  Hall,  called  out  to  aid  a  Slave 
Act  Commissioner  in  his  attempt  to  kidnap  one  of 
his  fellow-citizens !  A  man  by  the  name  of  Samuel 
Adams  drilled  the  police  in  the  street.  Samuel 
Adams  of  the  old  time  left  no  children.  We  have 
lost  the  true  names  of  men  ;  only  Philadelphia  keeps 
one. 

You  remember  the  looks  of  men  in  the  streets,  the 
crowds  that  filled  up  Court  Square.  Men  came  in 
from  the  country, —  came  a  hundred  miles  to  look 
on ;  some  of  them  had  fathers  who  fought  at  Lex- 
ington and  Bunker  Hill.  They  remembered  the  old 
times,  when,  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  a 
hundred  and  fifty  volunteers,  with  the  firelock  at  the 
shoulder,  took  the  road  from  New  Ipswich  to  Boston. 

You  have  not  forgotten  the  articles  in  the  news- 


70  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

papers,  Whig  and  Democratic  both ;  the  conduct  of 
the  "  leading  "  churches  you  will  never  forget. 

What  an  appropriate  time  that  would  have  been 
Opr  the  Canadians  to  visit  the  "  Athens  of  America," 
and  see  the  conduct  of  the  "  freest  and  most  enlight- 
ened people  in  the  world  I  "  If  the  great  Hungarian 
could  have  come  at  that  time,  he  would  have  under- 
stood the  nature  of  "our  peculiar  institutions;"  at 
least  of  our  political  men. 

You  remember  the  decision  of  the  Circuit  judge, 
—  himself  soon  to  be  summoned  by  death  before  the 
Judge  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  —  not  allowing 
the  destined  victim  his  last  hope,  "  the  great  writ  of 
right."  The  decision  left  him  entirely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  other  kidnappers.  The  Court-room  was 
crowded  with  "  respectable  people,"  "  gentlemen  of 
property  and  standing : "  they  received  the  decision 
with  "  applause  and  the  clapping  of  hands."  Seize 
a  lamb  out  of  a  flock,  a  wolf  from  a  pack  of  wolves, 
the  lambs  bleat  with  sympathy,  the  wolves  howl 
with  fellowship  and  fear ;  but  when  a  competitor  for 
the  Presidency  sends  back  to  eternal  bondage  a  poor, 
friendless  negro,  asking  only  his  limbs,  wealthy  gen- 
tlemen of  Boston  applaud  the  outrage. 

*'  O  judgment !  thou  art  fled  to  brutisli  beasts, 
And  men  have  lost  their  reason  !  " 


You  remember  still  the  last  act  in  this  sad  trag- 
edy,— the  rendition  of   the  victim.     In  the  darkest 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  71 

hour  of  the  night  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  of 
April,  the  kidnappers  took  him  from  his  jail  in  Court 
Square,  weeping  as  he  left  the  door.  Two  kindly 
men  went  and  procured  the  poor  shivering  boy  a  few 
warm  garments  for  his  voyage  :  I  will  not  tell  their 
names;  perhaps  their  charity  was  "treason,"  and 
"  levying  war."  Both  of  the  men  were  ministers, 
and  had  not  forgotten  the  great  human  word  :  "  Inas- 
much as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these 
my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  The  chief 
kidnappers  surrounded  Mr.  Sims  with  a  troop  of  po- 
licemen, armed  with  naked  swords;  that  troop  was 
attended  by  a  larger  crew  of  some  two  hundred 
policemen,  armed  with  clubs.  They  conducted  him, 
weeping  as  he  went,  towards  the  water-side ;  they 
passed  under  the  eaves  of  the  old  State  House, 
which  had  rocked  with  the  eloquence  of  James  Otis, 
and  shaken  beneath  the  manly  tread  of  both  the 
Adamses,  whom  the  cannon  at  the  door  could  not 
terrify,  and  whose  steps  awakened  the  nation.  They 
took  him  over  the  spot  where,  eighty-one  years 
before,  the  ground  had  drunk  in  the  African  blood  of 
Christopher  Attucks,  shed  by  white  men  on  the  fifth 
of  March  ;  brother's  blood  which  did  not  cry  in  vain. 
They  took  him  by  the  spot  where  the  citizens  of 
Massachusetts  —  some  of  their  descendants  were 
again  at  the  place  —  scattered  the  taxed  tea  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  waters  and  the  winds ;  they  put  him 


72  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

on  board  the  "  Acorn,"  owned  by  a  merchant  of 
Boston,  who,  once  before,  had  kidnapped  a  man  on 
his  own  account,  and  sent  him  off  to  the  perdition 
of  slavery,  without  even  the  help  of  a  commissioner ; 
a  merchant  to  whom  it  is  "  immaterial  what  his  chil- 
dren may  say  of  him  I" 

"  And  this  is  Massachusetts  liberty ! "  said  the 
victim  of  the  avarice  of  Boston.  No,  Thomas  Sims, 
that  was  not  "  Massachusetts  liberty ; "  it  was  all 
the  liberty  which  the  Government  of  Massachusetts 
wished  yon  to  have ;  it  was  the  liberty  which  the 
City  Government  presented  you ;  it  was  the  liberty 
which  Daniel  Webster  designed  for  you.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts  still  believe  that  "  all  men 
are  born  free  and  equal,"  and  "  have  natural,  essen- 
tial, and  unalienable  rights  ""  of  enjoying  and  de- 
fending their  lives  and  liberties,"  "  of  seeking  and 
obtaining  their  safety  and  happiness."  Even  the 
people  of  Boston  believe  that ;  but  certain  politicians 
and  merchants,  to  whom  it  is  "  immaterial  what  their 
children  say "  of  them,  —  they  wished  you  to  be  a 
slave,  and  it  was  they  who  kidnapped  you. 

Some  of  you  remember  the  religious  meeting  held 
on  the  spot,  as  this  new  "  missionary  "  went  abroad 
to  a  heathen  land;  the  prayer  put  up  to  Him  who 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  the  earth  ;  the 
hymns  sung.  They  sung  then,  who  never  sung  be- 
fore, their  "  Missionary  Hymn  :  "  — 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  73 

"  From  many  a  Southern  river 
And  field  of  sugar-cane, 
They  call  us  to  deliver 
Their  land  from  Slavery's  chain." 

On  the  spot  where  the  British  soldiers  slew  Chris- 
topher Attucks  in  1770,  other  men  of  Boston  resolved 
to  hold  a  religious  meeting  that  night.  They  were 
thrust  out  of  the  hall  they  had  engaged.  The  next 
day  was  the  Christian  sabbath  ;  and  at  night  a  meet- 
ing was  held  in  a  "  large  upper  room,"  a  meeting  for 
mutual  condolence  and  prayer.  You  will  not  soon 
forget  the  hymns,  the  Scriptures,  the  speeches,  and 
the  prayers  of  that  night.  This  assembly  is  one  of 
the  results  of  that  little  gathering. 

Well,  all  of  that  you  knew  before ;  this  you  do 
not  know.  Thomas  Sims,  at  Savannah,  had  a  fair 
and  handsome  woman,  by  the  courtesy  of  the  master 
called  his  "  wife."  Sims  loved  his  wife  ;  and,  when 
he  came  to  Boston,  wrote,  and  told  her  of  his  hiding- 
place,  the  number  in  the  street,  and  the  name  of  the 
landlord.  His  wife  had  a  paramour  ;  that  is  a  very 
common  thing.  The  slave  is  "  a  chattel  personal,  to 
all  intents,  constructions,  and  purposes  whatsoever." 
By  the  law  of  Georgia,  no  female  slave  owns  her 
own  virtue  ;  single  or  married,  it  is  all  the  same. 
This  African  Delilah  told  her  paramour  of  her  hus- 
band's hiding-place.  Blame  her  not :  perhaps  she 
thought  "  the  Union  is  in  peril  this  hour,"  and  wished 

VOL.    I.  7 


74  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

to  save  it.  Yet  I  doubt  that  she  would  send  back 
her  own  mother  ;  the  African  woman  does  not  come 
to  that ;  only  a  Doctor  of  Divinity  and  Chaplain  of 
the  Navy.  I  do  not  suppose  she  thought  she  was 
doing  her  husband  any  harm  in  telling  of  his  escape ; 
nay,  it  is  likely  that  her  joy  was  so  full,  she  could 
not  hold  it  in.  The  Philistine  had  ploughed  with 
Sims's  heifer,  and  found  out  his  riddle  :  the  para- 
mour told  the  master  Sims's  secret ;  the  master  sent 
the  paramom-  of  Mr.  Sims's  wife  to  Boston  to  bring 
back  the  husband!  He  was  very  welcome  in  this 
city,  and  got  "  the  best  of  legal  advice  "  at  a  cele- 
brated office  in  Court  street.  Boston  said,  "  God 
speed  the  paramour ! "  the  Government  of  Massa- 
chusetts, "  God  speed  the  crime  !  "  Money  came  to 
the  pockets  of  the  kidnappers ;  the  paramour  went 
home,  his  object  accomplished,  and  the  master  was 
doubtless  grateful  to  the  city  of  Boston,  which  hon- 
ored thus  the  piety  of  its  founders ! 

He  was  taken  back  to  Georgia  in  the  "  Acorn  ;  " 
some  of  the  better  sort  of  kidnappers  went  with  him 
to  Savannah  ;  there  Sims  was  put  in  jail,  and  they 
received  a  public  dinner.  You  know  the  reputation 
of  the  men :  the  workmen  were  worthy  of  their 
meat  In  jail,  Mr.  Sims  was  treated  with  gi-eat 
severity ;  not  allowed  to  see  his  relatives,  not  even 
his  mother.  It  is  said  that  he  was  tortured  every 
day  with  a  certain  number  of  stripes  on  his  naked 
back ;  that  his  master  once  offered  to  remit  part  of 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  75 

the  cruelty,  if  he  would  ask  pardon  for  running 
away.  The  man  refused,  and  took  the  added  blows. 
One  day,  the  jail-doctor  told  the  master  that  Sims 
was  too  ill  to  bear  more  stripes.  The  master  said, 
"  Damn  him  I  give  him  the  lashes,  if  he  dies  ;  "  — 
and  the  lashes  fell.  Be  not  troubled  at  that ;  a  slave 
is  only  a  "  chattel  personal."  Those  blows  were 
laid  on  by  the  speakers  of  the  Union  meeting  ;  it 
was  only  "  to  save  the  Union."  I  have  seen  a  cleri- 
cal certificate,  setting  forth  that  the  "  owner  "  of  Mr. 
Sims  was  an  "  excellent  Christian,"  and  "  uncom- 
monly pious."  When  a  clergyman  would  send  back 
his  own  mother,  such  conduct  is  sacramental  in  a 
layman. 

When  Thomas  Sims  was  unlawfully  seized,  and 
detained  in  custody  against  the  law,  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  was  in  Boston ;  the  Legislature  was 
in  session.  It  seems  to  me  it  was  their  duty  to  pro- 
tect the  man,  and  enforce  the  laws  of  the  State  ;  but 
they  did  no  such  thing. 

As  that  failed,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  next  thing 
was  for  the  public  to  come  together  in  a  vast  multi- 
tude, and  take  their  brother  out  of  the  hands  of  his 
kidnappers,  and  set  him  at  liberty.  On  the  morning 
of  the  sixth  of  March,  1770,  the  day  after  the  Boston 
massacre,  Faneuil  Hall  could  not  hold  the  town- 
meeting.  They  adjourned  to  the  Old  South,  and 
demanded  ",the  immediate  removal  of  the  troops;" 


76  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

at  sundown  there  was  "  not  a  Red-coat  in  Boston." 
But  the  people  in  this  case  did  no  such  thing. 

The  next  thing  was  for  the  Vigilance  Committee 
to  deliver  the  man :  the  country  has  never  forgiven 
the  Committee  for  not  doing  it.  I  am  Chairman  of 
the  executive  committee  of  the  Vigilance  Commit- 
tee ;  I  cannot  now  relate  all  that  was  done,  all  that 
was  attempted.  I  will  tell  that  when  the  time 
comes.  Yet  I  think  you  will  believe  me  when  I  say 
the  Vigilance  Committee  did  all  they  could.  But 
see  some  of  the  difficulties  in  their  w^ay. 

There  was  in  Boston  a  large  number  of  crafty, 
rich,  designing,  and  "  respectable  "  men,  who  wanted 
a  man  kidnapped  in  Boston,  and  sent  into  slavery ; 
they  wanted  that  for  the  basest  of  purposes,  —  for 
the  sake  of  money ;  they  wanted  the  name  of  it,  the 
reputation  of  kidnapping  a  man.  They  protected 
the  kidnappers,  —  foreign  and  domestic ;  egged  them 
on,  feasted  them.  It  has  been  said  that  fifteen  hun- 
dred men  volunteered  to  escort  their  victim  out  of 
the  State ;  that  some  of  them  are  rich  men.  I  think 
the  majority  of  the  middle  class  of  men  were  in 
favor  of  freedom ;  but,  in  Boston,  what  is  a  man 
without  money  ?  and,  if  he  has  money,  who  cares 
how  base  his  character  may  be  ?  You  demand 
moral  character  only  of  a  clergyman.  Some  of  the 
richest  men  were  strongly  in  favor  of  freedom  ;  but, 
alas !  not  many,  and  for  the  most  part  they  were 
silent. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.         ■  77 

The  City  Government  of  that  period  I  do  not  like 
to  speak  of.  It  offers  to  a  man,  as  cool  as  I  am,  a 
temptation  to  use  language  which  a  gentleman  does 
not  wish  to  apply  to  any  descendant  of  the  human 
race.  But  that  Government,  encouraging  its  thou- 
sand and  five  hundred  illegal  groggeries,  and  pre- 
tending a  zeal  for  law,  was  for  kidnapping  a  man  ; 
so  the  police-force  of  the  city  was  unlawfully  put  to 
that  work  ;  soldiers  were  called  out ;  the  money  of 
the  city  flowed  freely,  and  its  rum.  I  do  not  sup- 
pose that  the  kidnapping  was  at  all  disagreeable  to 
the  "  conscience "  of  the  City  Government ;  they 
seemed  to  like  it,  and  the  consequences  thereof. 

The  prominent  clergy  of  Boston  were  on  the  same 
side.  The  Dollar  demanded  that;  and  whither  it 
went,  thither  went  they.  "Like  people  like  priest" 
was  a  proverb  two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago, 
and  is  likely  to  hold  its  edge  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
Still  there  were  some  very  noble  men  among  the 
ministers  of  Boston  :  we  found  them  in  all  denomi- 
nations. 

Then  the  Courts  of  Massachusetts  refused  to  issue 
the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus.  They  did  not  afford  the 
smallest  protection  to  the  poor  victim  of  Southern 
tyraimy. 

Not  a  sheriff  could  be  got  to  serve  a  writ ;  the 
high  sheriff  refused,  all  his  deputies  held  back. 
Who  could  expect  them  to  do  their  duty  when  all 
else  failed  ? 


78  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

The  Legislature  was  then  in  session.  They  sat 
from  January  till  May.  They  knew  that  eight  thou- 
sand nine  hundred  and  seventy-five  citizens  of  Mas- 
sachusetts had  no  protection  but  public  opinion,  and 
in  Boston  that  opinion  was  against  them.  They 
saw  four  hundred  citizens  of  Boston  flee  off  for 
safety ;  they  saw  Shadrach  captured  in  Boston ; 
they  saw  him  kidnapped,  and  put  in  jail  against  their 
own  law ;  they  saw  the  streets  filled  with  soldiers  to 
break  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  the  police  of  Bos- 
ton employed  in  the  same  cause ;  they  saw  the 
sherilfs  refuse  to  serve  a  writ;  they  saw  Thomas 
Sims  kidnapped  and  carried  from  Boston;  and,  in 
all  the  five  months  of  the  session,  they  did  not  pass 
a  law  to  protect  their  fellow-citizens ;  they  did  not 
even  pass  a  "resolution"  against  the  extension  of 
slavery !  The  Senate  had  a  committee  to  investigate 
the  affair  in  Boston.  They  sat  in  the  Senate-hall, 
and  were  continually  insulted  by  the  vulgarest  of 
men ;  insulted  not  only  with  impudence,  but  im- 
punity, by  men  who  confessed  that  they  were  violat- 
ing the  laws  of  Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts  had  then  a  Governor  who  said  he 
"  would  not  harbor  a  fugitive  slave."  What  did  he 
do  ?  He  sat  as  idle  as  a  feather  in  the  chair  of 
State ;  he  left  the  sheriffs  as  idle  as  he.  While  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  were  broken  nine  days  run- 
ning, the  successor  of  John  Hancock  sat  as  idle  as  a 
feather  in  the  chair  of  State,  and  let  kidnapping  go 


THE    BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  79 

on!  I  hate  to  say  these  things.  The  Governor  is  a 
young  man,  not  without  virtues ;  but  think  of  such 
things  in  Massachusetts  I 

This  is  my  public  defence  of  the  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee. The  private  defence  shall  come,  if  I  live 
long  enough. 

It  was  on  the  Nineteenth  day  of  April  that  Thomas 
Sims  was  landed  at  Savannah,  and  put  in  the  public 
jail  of  the  city.  Do  you  know  what  that  day  stands 
for  in  your  calendar  ?  Some  of  your  fathers  knew 
very  well.  Ten  miles  from  here  is  a  little  monument 
at  Lexington,  "  sacred  to  liberty  and  the  rights  of 
mankind,"  telling  that  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775, 
some  noble  men  stood  up  there  against  the  army  of 
England,  "fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  M^orld," 
and  laid  down  their  lives  "in  the  sacred  cause  of 
God  and  their  country;"  six  miles  further  off  is 
another  little  monument  at  Concord  ;  two  miles  fur- 
ther back,  a  third,  all  dating  from  the  same  day. 
The  War  of  Revolution  began  at  Lexington,  to  end 
at  Yorktown.  Its  first  battle  was  on  the  Nineteenth 
of  April.  Hancock  and  Adams  lodged  at  Lexington 
with  the  minister.  One  raw  morning,  a  little  after 
daybreak,  a  tall  man,  with  a  large  forehead  under  a 
three-cornered  hat,  drew  up  his  company  of  seventy 
men  on  the  green,  farmers  and  mechanics  like  him- 
self ;  only  one  is  left  now,  the  boy  who  "  played " 
the  men  to  the  spot.     They  wheeled  into  line  to  wait 


80  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

for  the  Regulars.  T^he  captain  ordered  every  man  to 
load  "  his  piece  with  powder  and  ball."  "  Do  n't  fire," 
were  his  Avords,  "  unless  fired  upon  ;  but,  if  they 
want  a  war,  let  it  begin  here." 

The  Regulars  came  on.  Some  Americans  offered 
to  run  away  from  their  post.  Their  captain  said,  "  I 
will  order  the  first  man  shot  dead  that  leaves  his 
place."  The  English  commander  cried  out,  "Dis- 
perse, you  rebels  ;  lay  down  your  arms  and  disperse." 
Not  a  man  stirred.  "  Disperse,  you  damned  rebels ! " 
shouted  he  again.  Not  a  man  stirred.  He  ordered 
the  vanguard  to  fire;  they  did  so,  but  over  the  heads 
of  our  fathers.  Then  the  whole  main  body  levelled 
their  pieces,  and  there  was  need  of  ten  new  graves 
in  Lexington.  A  few  Americans  returned  the  shot. 
British  blood  stained  the  early  grass,  which  "  waved 
with  the  wind."  "  Disperse  and  take  care  of  your- 
selves," was  the  captain's  last  command !  And, 
after  the  British  fired  their  third  round,  there  lay  the 
dead,  and  there  stood  the  soldiers ;  there  was  a  bat- 
tle field  between  England  and  America,  never  to  be 
forgot,  never  to  be  covered  over.  The  "  mother- 
country  "  of  the  morning  was  the  "  enemy  "  at  sun- 
rise. "  Oh,  what  a  glorious  morning  is  this!"  said 
Samuel  Adams. 

The  Nineteenth  of  April  was  a  good  day  for  Bos- 
ton to  land  a  fugitive  slave  at  Savannah,  and  put 
him  in  jail,  because  he  claimed  his  liberty.  Some  of 
you  had  fathers  in  the  Battle  of  Lexington,  many  of 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  81 

you  relations  ;  some  of  you,  I  think,  keep  trophies 
from  that  day,  won  at  Concord  or  at  Lexington. 
I  have  seen  such  things,  —  powder-horns,  shoe- 
buckles,  a  firelock,  and  other  things,  from  the  Nine- 
teenth of  April,  1775.  Here  is  a  Boston  trophy  from 
April  Nineteenth,  1851.  This  is  the  coat  of  Thomas 
Sims.*  He  wore  it  on  the  third  of  April  last.  Look 
at  it.  You  see  he  did  not  give  up  with  alacrity,  nor 
easily  "conquer"  his  "  prejudices"  for  liberty.  See 
how  they  rent  the  sleeve  away  !  His  coat  was  torn 
to  tatters.     "  And  this  is  Massachusetts  liberty  !  " 

Let  the  kidnappers  come  up  and  say,  "  Massachu- 
setts I  knowest  thou  whether  this  be  thy  son's  coat 
or  not  ?  " 

Let  Massachusetts  answer  :  "  It  is  my  son's  coat ! 
An  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him.  Thomas  is  with- 
out doubt  rent  in  pieces  !  " 

Yes,  Massachusetts  !  that  is  right.  It  was  an  evil 
beast  that  devoured  him,  worse  than  the  lion  which 
comes  up  from  the  swelling  of  Jordan  :  it  was  a  kid- 
napper. Thomas  was  rent  with  whips !  Go,  Mas- 
sachusetts !  keep  thy  trophies  from  Lexington.  I 
will  keep  this  to  remind  me  of  Boston,  and  her  dark 
places,  which  are  full  of  cruelty. 

After  the  formation  of  the  Union,  a  monument 
was  erected  at  Beacon  Hill,  to  commemorate  the 
chief  events  which  led  to  the  American  Revolution, 

*  Here  the  coat  was  exhibited. 


82  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

and  helped  secure  liberty  and  independence.  Some 
of  yon  remember  the  inscriptions  thereon.  If  a 
monument  were  built  to  commemorate  the  events 
which  are  connected  with  the  recent  "  Salvation  of 
the  Union,"  the  inscriptions  might  be :  — 

Union  saved  by  Daniel  Webster's  Speech  at  Washington,  March 

7,  1850. 
Union  saved  by  Daniel  Webster's  Speech  at  Boston,  April  30, 

1850. 
Union  saved  by  the  Passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  Sept.  18, 

1850. 
Union  saved  by  the  arrival  of  Kidnapper  Hughes  at  Boston,  Oct. 

19,  1850. 
Union  saved  by  the  "  Union  Meeting"  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Nov.  26, 

1850. 
Union  saved  by  kidnapping  Thomas  Sims  at  Boston,  April  3,1851. 
Union    saved  by  the  Rendition  of  Thomas   Sims  at  Savannah, 

April  19,  1851.  —  "  Oh,  what  a  glorious  morning  is  this.' " 

SicuT  Patribus  sit  Deus  Nobis.* 

The  great  deeds  of  the  American  Revolution  were 
also  commemorated  by  medals.  The  Boston  kid- 
napping is  worthy  of  such  commemoration,  and 
would  be  an  appropriate  subject  for  a  medal,  which 
might  bear  on  one  side  a  bass-relief  of  the  last  scene 
of  that  act:  the  Court  House  in  chains;  the  victim 
in  the  hollow  square  of  Boston  police,  their  swords 
and  bludgeons  in  their  hands.     The  motto  might  be 

*  The  Latin  words  are  the  motto  on  the  Seal  of  Boston. 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  83 

—  The  Great  Object  of  Government  is  the 
Protection  of  Property  at  Home.*  The  other  side 
might  bear  a  Boston  Church,  surrounded  by  shops 
and  taverns  taller  than  itself,  with  the  twofold  in- 
scription :    No  Higher  Law  ;    and   I  would    send 

BACK    MY    own    MoTHER. 

What  a  change  from  the  Boston  of  John  Hancock 
to  the  Boston  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  from  the 
town  which  hung  Grenville  and  Huske  in  effigy,  to 
the  city  which  approved  Mr.  Webster's  speech  in 
defence  of  slave-catching!  Boston  tolled  her  bells 
for  the  Stamp  Act,  and  fired  a  hundred  holiday  can- 
nons for  the  Slave  Act!  Massachusetts,  all  New 
England,  has  been  deeply  guilty  of  slavery  and  the 
slave-trade.  An  exile  from  Germany  finds  the  chief 
street  of  Newport  paved  by  a  tax  of  ten  dollars  a 
head  on  all  the  slaves  landed  there ;  the  little  town 
sent  out  Christian  New  England  rum,  and  brought 
home  Heathen  men  —  for  sale.  Slavery  came  to 
Boston  with  the  first  settlers.  In  1639,  Josselyn 
found  here  a  negro  woman  in  bondage  refusing  to 
become  the  mother  of  slaves.  There  was  much  to 
palliate  the  offence  :  all  northern  Europe  was  stained 
with  the  crime.  It  did  not  end  in  Westphalia  till 
1789.  But  the  consciences  of  New  England  never 
slept  easy  under  that  sin.     Before  1641,  Massachu- 

*  Remark  of  Mr.  Webster. 


84  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

setts  ordered  that  a  slave  should  be  set  free  after 
seven  years'  service,  reviving  a  merciful  ordinance  of 
the  half-barbarous  Hebrews  a  thousand  years  before 
Christ.     In  1645,  the  General   Court  of  Massachu- 
setts sent  back  to  Guinea  two  black  men  illegally 
enslaved,    and   made    a  law    forbidding  the  sale  of 
slaves,  except  captives  in  war,  or  men  sentenced  to 
sale  for  crime.     Even  they  were  set  free  after  seven 
years'   service.      Still    slavery    always   existed   here, 
spite  of  the  law ;  the  newspapers  once  contained  ad- 
vertisements of  "  negro-babies  to  be  given  away  "  in 
Boston!     Yet  New  England  never  loved  slavery: 
hard  and  cruel  as  the  Puritans  were,  they  had  some 
respect  for  the  letter  of   the  New  Testament.     In 
1700,  Samuel  Sewall  protested  against  "the  selling 
of  Joseph ; "    as  another  Sewall,  in  1851,  protested 
against  the  selling  of  Thomas.     There  was  a  great 
controversy  about  slavery  in  IMassachusetts  in  1766 ; 
even   Harvard  College  took  an  interest  in  freedom, 
setting  its  young  men  to  look  at  the  rights  of  man! 
In  1767,  a  bill  was  introduced  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly  to  prevent  "  the   unnatural   and  unwarrantable 
custom  of   enslaving  mankind."     It  was  killed  by 
the  Hunkers  of  that  time.     In  1774,  a  bill  of  a  sim- 
ilar character  passed  the  Assembly,  but  was  crushed 
by  the  veto  of  Governor  Hutchinson. 

In  1788,  three  men  were  illegally  kidnapped  at 
Boston  by  "  one  Avery,  a  native  of  Connecticut," 
and  carried  off  to   Martinico.     Then  we  had  John 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  85 

Hancock  for  governor,  and  he  wrote  to  all  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  West  India  Islands  in  favor  of  the 
poor  creatures.  The  Boston  Association  of  Congre- 
gational Ministers  petitioned  the  Legislature  to  pro- 
hibit Massachusetts  ships  from  engaging  in  the  for- 
eign or  domestic  slave-trade.  Dr.  Belknap  was  a 
member  of  the  Association,  —  a  man  worthy  to  have 
Channing  for  a  successor  to  his  humanity.  The 
Legislature  passed  a  bill  for  the  purpose.  In  July 
the  three  men  were  brought  back  from  the  West 
Indies:  Dr.  Belknap  says,  "  It  was  a  day  of  jubilee 
for  all  the  friends  of  justice  and  humanity." 

What  a  change  from  the  Legislature,  clergy,  and 
governor  of  1788  to  that  of  1851 !  Alas !  men  do 
not  gather  figs  of  thistles.  The  imitators  of  this 
Avery  save  the  Union  now :  he  saved  it  before  it 
was  formed.  How  is  the  faithful  city  become  a 
harlot !  It  was  full  of  judgment :  righteousnes& 
lodged  in  it,  but  now  murderers. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  disastrous  change !  It 
is  the  excessive  love  of  money  which  has  taken  pos- 
session of  the  leading  men.  In  1776,  General 
Washington  said  of  Massachusetts :  "  Notwithstand- 
ing all  the  public  spirit  that  is  ascribed  to  this  people, 
there  is  no  nation  under  the  sun  that  I  ever  came 
across,  which  pays  greater  adoration  to  money  than 
they  do."  What  would  he  say  now  ?  Selfishness 
and  covetousness  have  flowed  into  the  commercial 

VOL.    I.  8 


86  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

capital  of  New  England,  seeking  their  fortune.  Bos- 
ton is  now  a  shop,  with  the  aim  of  a  shop,  and  the 
morals  of  a  shop,  and  the  politics  of  a  shop. 

Thomas  Jefferson  said :  Governments  are  insti- 
tuted amongst  men  to  secure  the  natural  and  unalien- 
able right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness. All  America  said  so  on  the  fourth  of  July, 
1776.  But  we  have  changed  all  that.  Daniel  Web- 
ster said,  at  New  York,  1850 :  "  The  great  object  of 
government  is  the  protection  of  property  at  home, 
and  respect  and  renown  abroad."  John  Hancock 
had  some  property  to  protect ;  but  he  said  the  design 
of  government  is  "  security  to  the  persons  and  the 
properties  of  the  governed."  He  put  the  persons 
first,  and  the  property  afterwards;  the  substance  of 
man  before  his  accidents.  Hancock  said  again  :  "  It 
is  the  indispensable  duty  of  every  member  of  society 
to  promote,  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  the  prosperity  of 
every  individual."  The  Governor  of  Massachusetts 
says :  "  I  would  not  harbor  a  fugitive."  A  clergy- 
man says  :  I  would  send  back  my  own  mother  I  If 
the  great  object  of  government  is  the  protection  of 
property,  why  should  a  governor  personally  harbor  a 
fugitive,  or  officially  protect  nine  thousand  colored 
men  ?  Why  should  not  a  clergyman  send  to  slavery 
his  mother,  to  save  the  Union,  or  to  save  a  bank,  or 
to  gain  a  chaplaincy  in  the  navy  ?  But,  if  this  be 
so,  then  what  a  mistake  it  was  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
to    say,  "  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  87 

dance  of  things  that  he  possesseth  I "  Verily  the 
meat  is  more  than  the  life ;  the  body  less  than  rai- 
ment I  Christ  was  mistaken  in  his  "  Beware  of  cov- 
etousness : "  he  should  have  said,  "  Beware  of  phi- 
lanthropy j  drive  off  a  fugitive ;  send  back  your 
mother  to  bondage.  Blessed  are  the  kidnappers,  for 
they  shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 

Even  Thomas  Paine  had  a  Christianity  which 
would  choke  at  the  infidelity  and  practical  atheism 
taught  in  the  blessed  name  of  Jesus  in  the  Boston 
churches  of  Commerce  to-day.  The  Gospel  relates 
that  Jesus  laid  his  hands  on  men  to  bless  them  —  on 
the  deaf,  and  they  heard ;  on  the  dumb,  and  they 
spoke ;  on  the  blind,  and  they  saw ;  on  the  lame,  and 
they  walked ;  on  the  maimed  and  the  sick,  and  they 
were  whole.  But  Christian  Boston  lays  its  hand  on 
a  whole  and  free  man,  and  straightway  he  owns  no 
eyes,  no  ears,  no  tongue,  no  hands,  no  foot  >  he  is  a 
slave ! 

In  1761,  the  Massachusetts  of  John  Hancock 
would  not  pay  three  pence  duty  on  a  pound  of  tea, 
to  have  all  the  protection  of  the  British  crown  : 
ninety  years  later,  the  Boston  of  Daniel  Webster,  to 
secure  the  trade  of  the  South,  and  a  dim,  delusive 
hope  of  a  protective  tariff,  will  pay  any  tax  in  men. 
It  is  no  new  thing  for  her  citizens  to  be  imprisoned 
at  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  because  they  are 
black.     What  merchant  cares?     It   does  not  inter- 


oo  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

rupt  trade.  Five  citizens  of  Massachusetts  have 
just  been  sent  into  bondage  by  a  Southern  State. 
Of  what^ consequence  is  that  to  the  politicians  of  the 
Commonwealth  ?  Our  property  is  worth  six  hundred 
million  dollars.  By  how  much  is  a  man- worth  less 
than  a  dollar  I  The  penny  wisdom  of  "  Poor  Rich- 
ard "  is  the  great  gospel  to  the  city  which  cradled 
the  benevolence  of  Franklin. 

Boston  capitalists  do  not  hesitate  to  own  Southern 
plantations,  and  buy  and  sell  men ;  Boston  mer- 
chants do  not  scruple  to  let  their  ships  for  the  domes- 
tic slave-trade,  and  carry  the  child  from  his  mother 
in  Baltimore,  to  sell  him  to  a  planter  in  Louisiana  or 
Alabama ;  some  of  them  glory  in  kidnapping  their 
fellow-citizens  in  Boston.  Most  of  the  slave-ships 
in  the  Atlantic  are  commanded  by  New  England 
men.  A  few  years  ago,  one  was  seized  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government  at  Africa,  "  full  of  slaves ; "  it  was 
owned  in  Boston,  had  a  "  clearance "  from  our  har- 
bor, and  left  its  name  on  the  books  of  the  insurance 
offices  here.  The  controlling  men  of  Boston  have 
done  much  to  promote,  to  extend,  and  to  perpetuate 
slavery.  Why  not,  if  the  protection  of  property  be 
the  great  object  of  Government?  why  not,  if  interest 
is  before  Justice  ?  why  not,  if  the  higher  law  of  God 
is  to  be  sneered  at  in  state  and  church  ? 

When  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  passed,  the  six  New 
England  States  lay  fast  asleep :  Massachusetts  slept 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  89 

soundly,  her  head  pillowed  on  her  unsold  bales  of 
cotton  and  of  woollen  goods,  dreaming  of  "  orders 
from  the  South."  Justice  came  to  waken  her,  and 
whisper  of  the  peril  of  nine  thousand  citizens  ;  and 
she  started  in  her  sleep,  and,  being  frighted,  swore 
a  prayer  or  two,  then  slept  again.  But  Boston 
woke,  —  sleeping,  in  her  shop,  with  ears  open,  and 
her  eye  on  the  market,  her  hand  on  her  purse,  dream- 
ing of  goods  for  sale,  —  Boston  woke  broadly  up, 
and  fired  a  hundred  guns  for  joy.  O  Boston,  Bos- 
ton !  if  thou  couldst  have  known,  in  that  thine  hour, 
the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace  I  But  no  : 
they  were  hidden  from  her  eyes.  She  had  prayed  to 
her  god,  to  Money ;  he  granted  her  the  request,  but 
sent  leanness  into  her  soul. 

Yet  at  first  I  did  not  believe  that  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  could  be  executed  in  Boston  ;  even  the 
firing  of  the  cannons  did  not  convince  me  ;  I  did  not 
think  men  bad  enough  for  that.  I  knew  something 
of  wickedness ;  I  knew  what  love  of  money  could 
do ;  I  had  seen  it  blind  most  venerable  eyes.  I 
knew  Boston  was  a  Tory  town ;  the  character  of 
upstart  Tories  —  I  thought  I  knew  that :  the  man 
just  risen  from  the  gutter  knocks  down  him  that  is 
rising.  But  I  knew  also  the  ancient  history  of  Bos- 
ton. I  remembered  the  first  commissioner  we  ever 
had  in  New  England,  —  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  sent 
here  by  the  worst  of  the  Stuarts  "  to  rob  us  of  our 
charters   in   North   America."      He   was    a  terrible 


90  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

tyrant.     The   liberty  of  Connecticut   fled   into   the 
"  Great  Oak  at  Hartford  :  "  — 

"  The  Charter  Oak  it  was  the  tree 
That  saved  our  blessed  hberty." 

"  All  Connecticut  was  in  the  Oak."  But  Massachu- 
setts laid  her  hands  on  the  commissioner,  —  he  was 
her  Governor  also,  —  put  him  in  jail,  and  sent  him 
home  for  trial  in  1689.  William  of  Orange  thought 
we  "  served  him  right."  The  name  of  "  commis- 
sioner "  has  always  had  an  odious  meaning  to  my 
mind.  I  did  not  think  a  commissioner  at  kidnap- 
ping men  would  fare  better  than  Sir  Edmund  kid- 
napping charters.  I  remembered  the  "Writs  of  As- 
sistance, and  thought  of  James  Otis ;  the  Stamp 
Act,  "  Adams  and  Liberty  "  came  to  my  mind.  I 
did  not  forget  the  way  our  fathers  made  tea  with 
salt-water.  I  looked  up  at  that  tall  obelisk  ;  I  took 
courage,  and  have  since  reverenced  that  "  monument 
of  piled  stones."  I  could  not  think  Mr.  Webster 
wanted  the  law  enforced,  spite  of  his  speeches  and 
letters.  It  was  too  bad  to  be  true  of  him.  I  knew 
he  was  a  bankrupt  politician,  in  desperate  political 
circumstances,  gaming  for  the  Presidency,  with  the 
probability  of  getting  the  vote  of  the  county  of  Suf- 
folk, and  no  more.  I  knew  he  was  not  rich  :  his 
past  history  showed  that  he  would  do  almost  any 
thing  for  money,  which  he  seems  as  covetous  to  get 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  91 

as  prodigal  to  spend.     I  knew  that  "  a  man  in  fall- 
ing will  catch  at  a  redhot  iron  hook."     I  saw  why- 
Mr.  Webster  caught  at  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill :    it 
was  a  great  fall   from   the   coveted  and   imaginary 
Presidency  down  to  actual  private  life  at  Marshfield. 
It  was  a  great  fall.     The  Slave  Act  was  the  redhot 
iron  hook  to  a  man  "  falling  like  Lucifer,  never  to 
hope    again."      The    temptation    was    immense.      I 
could  not  think  he  meant  to  hold  on  there  ;  he  did 
often  relax  his  grasp,  yet  only  to  clutch  it  the  tighter. 
I  did  not  like  to  think  he  had  a  bad  heart.     I  hoped 
he  would  shrink  from  blasting  the  head  of  a  single 
fugitive  with  that  dreadful  "  thunder  "  of  his  speech ; 
that  he  would  not  like  to  execute  his  own  law.     Men 
in  Boston  said  it  could  not  be  executed.     Even  cruel 
men  that  I  knew  shuddered  at  the  thought  of  kid- 
napping a  man  who  fills  their  glasses  with  wine. 
The  law  was  not  fit  to  be  executed :  that  was  the 
general  opinion  in  Boston  at  first.     So,  when  kid- 
napper Hughes  came  here .  for  William  Craft,  even 
the  commissioner  applied  to  was  a  little  shy  of  the 
business.     Yet  that  commissioner  is  not  a  very  scru- 
pulous man.     I  mean,  in  the  various  parties  he  has 
wriggled  through,  he  has  not  left  the  reputation  of 
any  excessive  and  maidenly  coyness  in  moral  mat- 
ters, and  a  genius  for  excessive  scrupulousness  as  to 
means  or  ends.     Even  a  Hunker  minister  informed 
me  that  he  "  w^ould  certainly  aid  a  fugitive."     But, 
after  the    Union    Meeting,  the   clouds  of  darkness 


92  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

gathered  together,  and  it  set  in  for  a  storm  ;  the  kid- 
nappers went  and  rough-ground  their  swords  on  the 
grindstone  of  the  church,  a  navy  chaplain  turning 
the  crank  ;  and  all  our  hopes  fell  to  the  ground. 

"  Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  frightful  mien, 
As,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen  ; 
But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her  face. 
We  first  endure,  then  jjity,  then  embrace." 

The  relentless  administration  of  Mr.  Fillmore  has 
been  as  cruel  as  the  law  they  framed.  Mr.  Webster 
has  thrust  the  redhot  iron  hook  into  the  flesh  of 
thousands  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  and  his  kid- 
nappers came  to  a  nation  scattered  and  peeled, 
meted  out  and  trodden  down ;  they  have  ground  the 
poor  creatures  to  powder  under  their  hoof.  I  wish  I 
could  find  an  honorable  motive  for  such  deeds,  but 
hitherto  no  analysis  can  detect  it,  no  solar  micro- 
scope of  charity  can  bring  such  a  motive  to  light. 
The  end  is  base,  the  means  base,  the  motive  base. 

Yet  one  charge  has  been  made  against  the  Gov- 
ernment, which  seems  to  me  a  little  harsh  and  un- 
just. It  has  been  said  the  administration  preferred 
low  and  contemptible  men  as  their  tools ;  judges 
who  blink  at  law,  advocates  of  infamy,  and  men 
cast  off  from  society  for  perjury,  for  nameless  crimes, 
and  sins  not  mentionable  in  English  speech ;  crea- 
tures "  not  so  good  as  the  dogs  that  licked  Lazarus's 
sores ;  but,  like  flies,  still  buzzing  upon  any  thing 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  93 

that  is  raw."     There  is  a  semblance  of  justice  in  the 
charge  :  witness  Philadelphia,  Buffalo,  Boston ;  wit- 
ness New  York.     It  is  true  for  kidnappers  the  Gov- 
ernment did  take  men  that  looked  "  like  a  bull-dog 
just  come  to  man's  estate ; "  men  whose  face  declared 
them,  "  if  not  the  devil,  at  least  his  twin-brother." 
There  are  kennels  of  the  courts  wherein  there  settles 
down  all  that  the  law  breeds  most  foul,  loathsome, 
and  hideous  and  abhorrent  to  the  eye  of  day ;  there 
this  contaminating  puddle  gathers  its  noisome  ooze, 
slowly,  stealthily,  continually,  agglomerating  its  fetid 
mass  by  spontaneous  cohesion,  and  sinking  by  the 
irresistible  gravity  of  rottenness  into  that  abhorred 
deep,  the  lowest,  ghastliest  pit  in  all  the  subterranean 
vaults  of  human  sin.     It  is  true  the  Government  has 
skimmed  the  top  and  dredged  the  bottom  of  these 
kennels  of  the  courts,  taking  for  its  purpose  the  scum 
and  sediment  thereof,  the  Squeers,  the  Fagins,  and 
the  Quilps   of  the  law,  the  monsters  of  the  court. 
Blame  not  the  Government ;  it  took  the  best  it  could 
get.      It  was   necessity,  not  will,  which   made  the 
selection.     Such  is  the  stuff  that  kidnappers  must  be 
made  of.     If  you  wish  to  kill  a  man,  it  is  not  bread 
you  buy:   it  is  poison.     Some  of  the  instruments 
of  Government  were  such  as  one  does  not  often  look 
upon.   But,  of  old  time,  an  inquisitor  was  always  "  a 
horrid-looking  fellow,  as  beseemed  his  trade."     It  is 
only  justice  that  a  kidnapper  should  bear  "  his  great 
commission  in  his  look." 


94  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

In  a  town  full  of  British  soldiers  in  1774,  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre,  John  Hancock 
said :  — 

"  Surely  you  never  will  tamely  suffer  this  country 
to  be  a  den  of  thieves.  Remember,  my  friends,  from 
whom  you  sprang.  Let  not  a  meanness  of  spirit, 
unknown  to  those  whom  you  boast  of  as  your  fathers, 
excite  a  thought  to  the  dishonor  of  your  mothers.  I 
conjure  you  by  all  that  is  dear,  by  all  that  is  honora- 
ble, by  all  that  is  sacred,  not  only  that  ye  pray,  but 
that  you  act ;  that,  if  necessary,  ye  fight,  and  even 
die,  for  the  prosperity  of  our  Jerusalem.  Break  in 
sunder,  with  noble  disdain,  the  bonds  with  which 
the  Philistines  have  bound  you.  Suffer  not  your- 
selves to  be  betrayed  by  the  soft  arts  of  luxury  and 
effeminacy  into  the  pit  digged  for  your  destruction. 
Despise  the  glare  of  wealth.  That  people  who  pay 
greater  respect  to  a  wealthy  villain  than  to  an  honest, 
upright  man  in  poverty,  almost  deserve  to  be  en- 
slaved :  they  plainly  show  that  wealth,  however  it 
may  be  acquired,  is,  in  their  esteem,  to  be  preferred 
to  virtue. 

"  But  I  thank  God  that  America  abounds  in  men 
who  are  superior  to  all  temptation,  whom  nothing 
can  divert  from  a  steady  pursuit  of  the  interest  of 
their  country,  who  are  at  once  its  ornament  and  safe- 
guard. And  siure  I  am  I  should  not  incur  your  dis- 
pleasvire,  if  I  paid  a  respect  so  justly  due  to  their 
much-honored  characters,  in  this  place  ;  but,  when  I 


THE   BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  95 

name  an  Adams,  svich  a  numerous  host  of  fellow- 
patriots  rush  upon  my  mind,  that  I  fear  it  would 
take  up  too  much  of  your  time,  should  I  attempt  to 
call  over  the  illustrious  roll:  but  your  grateful  hearts 
will  point  you  to  the  men ;  and  their  revered  names, 
in  all  succeeding  times,  shall  grace  the  annals  of 
America.  From  them,  let  us,  my  friends,  take  ex- 
ample ;  from  them  let  us  catch  the  divine  enthusi- 
asm ;  and  feel,  each  for  himself,  the  godlike  pleasure 
of  diffusing  happiness  on  all  around  us ;  of  deliver- 
ing the  oppressed  from  the  iron  grasp  of  tyranny ; 
of  changing  the  hoarse  complaint  and  bitter  moans 
of  wretched  slaves  into  those  cheerful  songs  which 
freedom  and  contentment  must  inspire.  There  is  a 
heartfelt  satisfaction  in  reflecting  on  our  exertions 
for  the  public  weal,  which  all  the  sufferings  an  en- 
raged tyrant  can  inflict  will  never  take  away,  which 
the  ingratitude  and  reproaches  of  those  whom  we 
have  saved  from  ruin  cannot  rob  us  of.  The  virtu- 
ous assertor  of  the  rights  of  mankind  merits  a  re- 
ward, which  even  a  want  of  success  in  his  endeavors 
to  save  his  country,  the  heaviest  misfortune  which 
can  befall  a  genuine  patriot,  cannot  entirely  prevent 
him  from  receiving." 

But,  in  1850,  Mr.  Webster  bade  Massachusetts 
"  conquer  her  prejudices."  He  meant  the  "  preju- 
dices "  in  favor  of  Justice,  in  favor  of  the  Unaliena- 
ble Rights  of  Man,  in  favor  of  Christianity.  Did 
Massachusetts  obey  ?    The  answer  was  given  a  year 


96  THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING. 

ago.  "  Despise  the  glare  of  wealth,"  said  the  richest 
man  in  New  England  in  1774 :  the  "  great  object  of 
government  is  the  protection  of  property,"  said  "  the 
great  intellect "  of  America  in  1850 !  John  Han- 
cock seventy-eight  years  ago,  said :  "  We  dread  noth- 
ing but  slavery : "  Daniel  Webster  two  years  ago, 
said,  Massachusetts  will  obey  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  "  with  .  alacrity."  Boston  has  forgotten  John 
Hancock. 

In  1775,  Joseph  Warren  said,  "  Scourges  and 
death  with  tortures  are  far  less  terrible  than  slavery." 
Now  it  is  "a  great  blessing  to  the  African."  Said 
the  same  Warren,  "  The  man  who  meanly  submits 
to  wear  a  shackle  contemns  the  noblest  gift  of  Heav- 
en, and  impiously  affronts  the  God  that  made  him 
free."  Now  clergymen  tell  us  that  kidnappers  are 
ordained  of  God,  and  passive  obedience  is  every 
man's  duty.  The  town  of  Boston  in  1770,  declared, 
"  Mankind  will  not  be  reasoned  out  of  the  feelings 
of  humanity."  In  1850,  the  pulpit  of  Boston  says. 
Send  back  your  brother. 

The  talk  of  dissolution  is  no  new  trick.  Hear 
General  Warren,  in  the  spirit  of  1775 :  "  Even  anar- 
chy itself,  that  bugbear  held  up  by  the  tools  of  power, 
is  infinitely  less  dangerous  to  mankind  than  arbitrary 
government.  Anarchy  can  be  but  of  short  duration ; 
for,  when  men  are  at  liberty  to  pursue  that  course 
which  is  most  conducive  to  their  own  happiness,  they 
will  soon  come  into  it,  and  from  the  rudest  state  of 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  97 

nature  order  and  good  government  must  soon  arise. 
But  tyranny,  when  once  established,  entails  its  curses 
on  a  nation  to  the  latest  period  of  time,  unless  some 
daring  genius,  inspired  by  Heaven,  shall,  unappalled 
by  danger,  bravely  form  and  execute  the  design  of 
restoring  liberty  and  life  to  his  enslaved  and  mur- 
dered country."  Now  a  man  would  send  his  mother 
into  slavery  to  save  the  Union  I 

Will  Boston  be  called  on  again  to  return  a  fugi- 
tive ?  Not  long  since,  some  noble  ladies  in  a  neigh- 
boring town,  whose  religious  hand  often  reaches 
through  the  darkness  to  save  men  ready  to  perish, 
delated  to  me  a  fresh  tale  of  woe.  Here  is  their  let- 
ter of  the  first  of  March :  — 

"  Only  ten  days  ago,  we  assisted  a  poor,  deluded 
sufferer  in  effecting  his  escape  to  Canada,  after  hav- 
ing been  cheated  into  the  belief  by  the  profligate 
captain  who  brought  him  from  the  South,  that  he 
would  be  in  safety  as  soon  as  he  reached  Boston. . .  . 
He  had  accumulated  two  hundred  dollars,  whicli  he 
put  into  the  captain's  hands,  upon  his  agreeing  to 
secrete  him,  and  bring  him  to  Boston.  The  moment 
the  vessel  touched  the  wharf,  the  scoundrel  bade  the 
poor  fellow  be  off  in  a  moment ;  and  he  then  discov- 
ered his  liability  to  be  pursued  and  taken.  It  was 
then  midnight,  and  the  cold  was  intense.  He  wan- 
dered about  the  streets,  and  in  the  morning  strolled 

into  the Depot,  and  came  out  to in 

the  earliest  cars.     On  reaching  this  town,  he  had  the 

VOL.  I.  9 


98  '  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

sense  to  find  out  the  only  man  of  color  who  lives 

here, ,  a  very  respectable  barber.     ]VIr. 

sheltered  him  that  day  and  the  following  night ;  and 
early  the  next  morning  a  sufficient  sum  had  been  col- 
lected for  him  to  pay  his  passage  to  Canada,  and 
supply  his  first  wants  after  arriving  there ;  but,  in  the 
meanwhile,  the  villanous  captain  bears  off  his  hard 
earnings  in  triumph." 

I  must  not  give  the  names  of  the  ladies :  they  are 
liable  to  a  fine  of  a  thousand  dollars  each,  and  im- 
prisonment for  six  months.*  It  was  atrocious  in  the 
captain  to  steal  the  two  hundred  dollars  from  the 
poor  captive ;  but  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  would  gladly  steal  his  body,  his  limbs,  his  life, 
his  children,  to  the  end  of  time.  The  captain  was 
honorable  in  comparison  with  the  kidnappers.  Per- 
haps he  also  wished  to  "  Save  the  Union."  —  Sicut 
Patribus  sit  Deus  Nobis  I 

What  a  change  from  the  Boston  of  our  fathers ! 
Where  are  the  children  of  the  patriots  of  old  ? 
Tories  spawned  their  brood  in  the  streets :  Adams 
and  Hancock  died  without  a  child.  Has  nature 
grown  sterile  of  men  ?  is  there  no  male  and  manly 
vktue  left  ?  are  we  content  to  be  kidnappers  of  men  ? 
No.  Here  still  are  noble  men,  men  of  the  good  old 
stock ;  men  of  the  same  brave,  holy  soul.     No  time 

*  It  is  still  unsafe  to  mention  their  names  !     January,  1855. 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  99 

of  trial  ever  brought  out  nobler  heroism  than  last 
year.  Did  we  want  money,  little  Methodist  churches 
in  the  country,  the  humanest  churches  in  New  Eng- 
land, dropped  their  widow's  mite  into  the  chest. 
From  ministers  of  all  modes  of  faith  but  the  popu- 
lar one  in  money,  from  all  churches  but  that  of  com- 
merce, there  came  gifts,  offers  of  welcome,  and  words 
of  lofty  cheer.  Here,  in  Boston,  there  were  men 
thoroughly  devoted  to  the  defence  of  their  poor, 
afflicted  brethren ;  even  some  clergymen  faithful 
among  the  faithless.  But  they  were  few.  It  was 
only  a  handful  who  ventured  to  be  faithful  to  the 
true  and  right.  The  great  tide  of  humanity,  which 
once  filled  up  this  place,  had  ebbed  off:  only  a  few 
perennial  springs  poured  out  their  sweet  and  unfail- 
ing wealth  to  these  weary  wanderers. 

Yet  Boston  is  rich  in  generous  men,  in  deeds  of 
charity,  in  far-famed  institutions  for  the  good  of 
man.  In  this  she  is  still  the  noblest  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  land.  I  honor  the  self-sacrificing,  noble 
men  ;  the  women  whose  loving-kindness  never  failed 
before.  Why  did  it  fail  at  this  time  ?  Men  fancied 
that  their  trade  was  in  peril.  It  was  an  idle  fear ; 
even  the  doUar  obeys  the  "  Higher  Law,"  which  its 
worshippers  deny.  Had  it  been  true,  Boston  had 
better  lose  every  farthing  of  her  gold,  and  start  anew 
with  nothing  but  the  wilderness,  than  let  her  riches 
stand  between  us  and  our  fellow  man.  Thy  money 
perish,  if  it  brutalize  thy  heart  I 


100  TIIH    ISOSTON    KII>N.\1'I'1N(J. 

I  wish  I  could  ItclicNc  tlir  molivcs  t»("  men  were 
good  ill  (his;  lh;d  Ihry  ic:dly  lhoiifj;h(  the  ii:iti(»ii  WUS 
ill  peril.  Hilt  MO  ;  it  <-iMiiio(  he.  It  was  not  the  love 
oreoiiiiliy  wliieh  kept  the '' eoiiiproiiiises  of  t he  ( "oii- 
stitiitioii"  ;iiid  !ii:ide  the  h'lii^il i\ c  Slave  IJill.  I  pity 
the  polilieiaiis  \\  ho  iiiadi-  this  wicked  law  ,  made  it  in 
the  madness  *>!  their  pride.  I  pity  that  son  of  New 
Mii^dand,  who,  against  his  nature,  a/j^ainst  his  early 
history,  drew  his  sword  to  sheathe  it  in  the  bowels  of 
his  hrother-man.*  'The  melaiieholiest  spectacle  in  all 
this  land,  sell-despoiled  of  the  lustre  which  woultl 
havi'  cast  a  ^h>ry  on  his  toinh,  and  sent  his  name  a 
watchword  to  many  an  ajjje,  —  now  he  is  the  com- 
panion of  kidnappers,  and  a  proverb  ami>nfj;st  lionor- 
td)le  men,  with  a  certainty  of  leaving  a  namt^  ti>  be 
hissed  at    bv   mankind. 

I  pit\  the  kidnappers,  the  poor  tools  of  men  almost, 
as  base.  I  wiadd  not  hnrt  a  hair  of  their  heads;  but 
1  w«>iild  take  the  thtmder  of  (he  moral  world,  and 
dash  its  boiled  li^htiiin^  on  this  crime  of  stcaliiif^ 
men,  till  the  name  iA'  ki(lna|)pini;  shonid  be  like 
Sodom  and  (lomorrah.  Il  is  piracy  t«.)  steal  a  man 
in  (iiiiiiea  ;    what  is  it  (o  do  (his  in  Hostcai  .' 

I  pil\  the  merchants  who,  h>r  their  trade,  were 
j^'lad  to  steal  (heir  comitrvmen;  1  wish  (liem  only 
•rood.  l)cbate  in  vonder  hall  has  show  n  how  lillle  of 
ImmaiiilN  (here  is  in  (he  (rade  y)l'  Mostoii.      She  looks 


*  Mv.  Wobstor. 


'rillO     liOSroN     KlUNAI'l'INO. 


loi 


on  all  Mil'  horrors  \\  liicli  iiilfiii|»craiic<'  lias  \vroiij;li(, 
and  daily  deals  in  every  slr<'e|  ;  she  sernlini/.es  llie 
jails,  —  (hey  are  lilled  hy  ruin;  she  looks  into  the 
ainis-lioiises,  ero\\(le<i  lull  l>y  rum  ;  she  walks  her 
sireels,  and  sees  the  perishinf^  classes  fall,  mowed 
(low  n  by  rimi  ;  she  enters  the  parlorsol  wcallhy  men, 
looks  inio  Ihe  hridal  eliamher,  and  meels  tiealli:  Ihe 
^liosls  of  Ihe  slain  are  llier*-,  •  men  slain  l>y  rum. 
She  knows  il  all,  yel  says,  "There  is  an  inleresi  al 
Hiake  !  "  —  Ihe  inleresi.  of  rum;  lei  man  ;,;ive  way! 
l)oslon  does  Ihis  lo-day.  Lasl  year  she  slole  a  man  ; 
iter  merehanis  slole  a  man!  The  saeriliee  of  man  lo 
money,  when  shall  i(-  lia\<'  an  end?  I  jiily  lhos<' 
merehanis  who  honor  money  more  Ihan  jnaii.  'I'lieir 
;^fold  is  cankered,  an<i  Iheirsonl  is  brass, —  is  rnsled 
brass.  They  miisl  come  up  bcfoic  Ihe  poslcrily 
which  Ihcy  alleel  lo  s<'orn.  \\  hat  voice  can  plead 
for  them  before  their  own  children.'  The  eye  that 
ino(;keth  at  the  justice  ol  its  son,  and  seorncth  lo 
obey  the  mercy  ol'  its  dau''lilcr,  the  ravens  of  poster- 
ity shall  j)ick  it  out,  and    the  yoim;^'  eagles  cat   it    up! 

|{u(  there  is  yet.  another  Iribmial:  "  /Viler  the 
death  the  jiid;^Mncnt  I''  When  he  makclh  incpiisilion 
for  Ihe  blood  of  the  innocent,  wlial  shall  the  sicalers 
ol  men  reply  ?  IJoston  mcichants,  where  is  yoiu" 
brother,  'I'liomas  Sims?       Lei.  (!ain  r<'ply  to  ( 'hrist. 

('ome,  Massachusetts!  take  thy  historic  mantle, 
wrou'dil:  all  over  with  storied  memories  of  two    luui- 


102  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

dred  years,  adorned  with  deeds  in  liberty's  defence, 
and  rough  with  broidered  radiance  from  the  hands  of 
sainted  men  ;  walk  backwards,  and  cover  up  and 
hide  the  naked  public  shame  of  Boston,  drunk  with 
gain,  and  lewdly  lying  in  the  street.  It  will  not  hide 
the  shame.  Who  can  annul  a  fact?  Boston  has 
chronicled  her  infamy,  and  on  the  iron  leaf  of  time, 
—  ages  shall  read  it  there ! 

Then  let  us  swear  by  the  glory  of  our  fathers  and 
the  infamy  of  this  deed,  that  we  will  hate  slavery, 
hate  its  cause,  hate  its  continuance,  and  will  exter- 
minate it  from  the  land ;  come  up  hither  as  the  years 
go  by,  and  here  renew  the  annual  oath,  till  not  a 
kidnapper  is  left  lurking  in  the  land ;  yes,  till  from 
the  Joseph  that  is  sold  into  Egypt,  there  comes  forth 
a  man  to  guide  his  people  to  the  promised  land. 
Out  of  this  "  Acorn  "  a  tall  oak  may  grow. 

Old  mythologies  relate,  that,  when  a  deed  of  sin 
is  done,  the  souls  of  men  who  bore  a  kindred  to  the 
deed  come  forth  and  aid  the  work.  What  a  com- 
pany must  have  assisted  at  this  sacrament  a  year 
ago  !  What  a  crowd  of  ruffians,  from  the  first  New 
England  commissioner  to  the  latest  dead  of  Boston 
murderers  I  Robert  Kidd  might  have  come  back 
from  his  felon-grave  at  "  Execution  Dock,"  to  resume 
his  appropriate  place,  and  take  command  of  the 
"  Acorn,"  and  guide  her  on  her  pirate-course.    Arnold 


THE    BOSTON    KIDNAPPING.  103 

might  sing  again  his  glad  Te  Deum,  as  on  that 
fatal  day  in  March,  What  an  assembly  there  would 
be,  —  "  shapes  hot  from  Tartarus  !  " 

But  the  same  mythologies  go  fabling  on,  and  say 
that  at  such  a  time  the  blameless,  holy  souls  who 
made  the  virtues  blossom  while  they  lived,  and  are 
themselves  the  starriest  flowers  of  Heaven  now,  that 
they  return  to  bless  the  old  familiar  spot,  and  witness 
every  modern  deed  ;  and,  most  of  all,  that  godly  min- 
isters, who  lived  and  labored  for  their  flocks,  return 
to  see  the  deed  they  cannot  help,  and  aid  the  good 
they  bless.  What  a  gathering  might  there  have 
been  of  the  jvist  men  made  perfect !  The  patriots 
who  loved  this  land,  mothers  whose  holy  hearts  had 
blessed  the  babes  they  bore  ;  pure  men  of  lofty  soul 
who  labored  for  mankind,  —  what  a  fair  company 
this  State  could  gather  of  the  immortal  dead !  Of 
those  great  ministers  of  every  faith,  who  dearly  loved 
the  Lord,  what  venerable  heads  I  see  :  John  Cotton 
and  the  other  "  famous  Johns ; "  Eliot,  bearing  his 
Indian  Bible,  which  there  is  not  an  Indian  left  to 
read ;  Edwards,  a  mighty  name  in  East  and  West, 
even  yet  more  marvellous  for  piety  than  depth  of 
thought ;  the  Mathers,  venerable  men  ;  Chauncy  and 
Mayhew,  both  noble  men  of  wealthy  soul ;  Belknap, 
who  saw  a  brother  in  an  African  ;  Buckminster,  the 
fairest,  sweetest  bud  brought  from  another  field,  too 
early  nipped  in   this ;   Channing   and    Ware,   both 


104  THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING. 

ministers  of  Christ,  who,  loving  God,  loved  too  their 
fellow  men !  How  must  those  souls  look  down 
upon  the  scene  !  Boston  delivering  up  —  for  lust  of 
gold  delivering  up  —  a  poor,  forsaken  boy  to  slavery; 
Belknap  and  Channing  mourning  for  the  church  ! 

I  turn  me  off  from  the  living  men,  the  living 
courts,  the  living  churches,  —  no,  the  churches  dead ; 
from  the  swarm  of  men  ail  bustling  in  the  streets ; 
turn  to  the  sainted  dead.  Dear  fathers  of  the  State ; 
ye  blessed  mothers  of  New  England's  sons  ;  —  O 
holy  saints  who  laid  with  prayer  the  deep  founda- 
tions of  New  England's  church,  is  then  the  seed  of 
heroes  gone  ?  New  England's  bosom,  is  it  sterile, 
cold,  and  dead  ?  "  No  !  "  say  the  fathers,  mothers, 
all,  —  "  New  England  only  sleeps  ;  even  Boston  is 
not  dead !  Appeal  from  Boston  drunk  with  gold, 
and  briefly  mad  with  hate,  to  sober  Boston  in  her 
hour  to  come.  Wait  but  a  little  time ;  have  pa- 
tience with  her  waywardness ;  she  yet  shall  weep 
with  penitence  that  bitter  day,  and  rise  with  ancient 
energy  to  do  just  deeds  of  lasting  fame.  Even  yet 
there's  Justice  in  her  heart,  and  Boston  mothers  shall 
give  birth  to  men  I  " 

Tell  me,  ye  blessed,  holy  souls,  angels  of  New 
England's  church !  shall  man  succeed,  and  gain  his 
freedom  at  the  last  ?  Answer,  ye  holy  men  ;  speak 
by  the  last  great  angel  of  the  church  who  went  to 
heaven.  Repeat  some  noble  word  you  spoke  on 
earth ! 


THE   BOSTON   KIDNAPPING.  105 

Hear  their  reply  :  — 

"  Oppression  shall  not  always  reign : 

There  comes  a  brighter  day, 
When  Freedom,  burst  from  every  chain, 

Shall  have  triumphant  way. 
Then  Right  shall  over  Might  prevail. 
And  Truth,  like  hero,  armed  in  mail, 
The  hosts  of  tyrant  Wrong  assail, 

And  hold  eternal  sway. 

"  What  voice  shall  bid  the  progress  stay 

Of  Truth's  victorious  car  ?  — 
What  arm  arrest  the  growing  day, 

Or  quench  the  solar  star  ? 
What  reckless  soul,  though  stout  and  strong. 
Shall  dare  bring  back  the  ancient  wrong,  — 
Oppression's  guilty  night  prolong. 

And  Freedom's  morning  bar  ? 

"  The  hour  of  triumph  comes  apace,  — 
The  fated,  promised  hour, 
When  earth  upon  a  ransomed  race 
Her  bounteous  gifts  shall  shower. 
Ring,  Liberty,  thy  glorious  bell ! 
Bid  high  thy  sacred  banners  swell ! 
Let  trump  on  trump  the  triumph  tell 
Of  Heaven's  redeeming  power  ! "  * 

*  These  are  the  words  of  Henry  Ware,  jr.,  the  last  minister, 
eminent  for  religion,  who  had  died  in  Boston. 


THE  ASPECT  OF  FREEDOM  IN  AMERICA. 


SPEECH 

AT    THE 

MASS  ANTI-SLAVERY  CELEBRATION 

OF    INDEPENDENCE, 

AT 

ABINGTON,  JULY  5,  1852. 


SPEECH. 


Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen, —  This 
is  one  of  the  anniversaries  which  mark  four  great 
movements  in  the  progressive  development  of  man- 
kind ;  whereof  each  makes  an  Epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race. 

The  first  is  the  Twenty-fifth  of  December,  the 
date  agreed  upon  as  the  anniversary  of  the  Birth  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  marking  the  Epoch  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  next  is  the  First  of  November,  the  day  when, 
in  1517,  Martin  Luther  nailed  the  ninety-five  theses 
on  the  church  door  at  Wittenberg,  the  noise  of  his 
hammer  startling  the  indolence,  the  despotism,  and 
the  licentiousness  of  the  Pope,  and  his  concubines, 
and  his  court  far  off  at  Rome.  That  denotes  the 
Epoch  of  Protestantism,  the  greatest  movement  of 
mankind  after  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

VOL.    I.  10 


110  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM  IN   AMERICA. 

The  third  is  the  Twenty-second  of  December,  the 
day  when  our  Forefathers,  in  1620,  first  set  their 
feet  on  Plymouth  Rock,  coming,  though  uncon- 
sciously, to  build  up  a  Church  without  a  Bishop,  a 
State  without  a  King,  a  Community  without  a  Lord, 
and  a  Family  without  a  Slave.  This  begins  the 
Epoch  of  New  England. 

The  last  is  the  Fourth  of  July,  when  our  Fathers, 
in  1776,  brought  distinctly  to  national  consciousness 
Avhat  I  call  the  American  Idea ;  the  Idea,  namely, 
that  all  men  have  natural  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  all  men  are  equal  in 
their  natural  rights ;  that  these  rights  can  only  be 
alienated  by  the  possessor  thereof;  and  that  it  is  the 
undeniable  function  of  government  to  preserve  their 
rights  to  each  and  all.  This  day  marks  the  Epoch 
of  the  United  States  of  America  —  an  Epoch  indis- 
solubly  connected  with  the  three  preceding.  The 
Idea  was  Christian,  was  Protestant,  was  of  New 
England.  Plymouth  was  becoming  national.  Protes- 
tantism going  into  politics ;  and  the  Sentiments  and 
Ideas  of  Christianity  getting  an  expression  on  a  na- 
tional scale.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
the  American  profession  of  faith  in  political  Chris- 
tianity. 

This  day  is  consecrated  to  freedom ;  let  us  look, 
therefore,  at  the  Aspect  of  Freedom  just  now  in 
America. 

In   1776,  there  were  less  than  three  million  per- 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA.  Ill 

sons  in  the  United  States.  Now,  more  than  three 
million  voters.  But,  alas  !  there  are  also  more  than 
three  million  slaves.  Seventy-six  years  ago,  slavery 
existed  in  all  the  thirteen  colonies ;  but  New  Eng- 
land was  never  quite  satisfied  with  it ;  only  the  cu- 
pidity of  the  Puritan  assented  thereto,  not  his  con- 
science. Soon  it  retreated  from  New  England,  from 
all  the  North,  but  strengthened  itself  in  the  South, 
and  spread  Westward  and  Southward,  till  now  it 
has  crossed  the  Cordilleras,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  is 
witness  to  the  gigantic  wrong  of  the  American 
People. 

But,  spite  of  this  growth  of  slavery,  the  Ameri- 
can Idea  has  grown  in  favor  with  the  American 
people,  the  North  continually  becoming  more  and 
more  democratic  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 
True,  in  all  the  great  cities  of  the  North,  the  love  of 
slavery  has  also  grown  strong,  in  none  stronger  than 
in  Boston.  The  Mother  city  of  the  Puritans  is  now 
the  metropolis  of  the  Hunkers.  Slavery  also  has 
entered  the  churches  of  the  North,  and  some  of 
them,  we  see,  when  called  on  to  choose  betwixt 
Christianity  and  slavery,  openly  and  boldly  decide 
against  the  Law  of  God,  and  in  favor  of  this  great 
crime  against  man.  But  simultaneously  with  this 
growth  of  Hunkerism  in  the  cities  and  the  churches 
of  the  North,  at  the  same  time  with  the  spread  of 
slavery  from  the  Delaware  to  the   Sacramento,  the 


112  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA. 

Spirit  of  Liberty  has  also  spread,  and  taken  a  deep 
hold  on  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

In  the  material  world,  nothing  is  done  by  leaps,  all 
by  gradual  advance.  The  land  slopes  upward  all 
the  way  from  Abington  to  the  White  Mountains. 
If  Mt.  Washington  rose  a  mile  and  a  quarter  of 
sheer  ascent,  with  perpendicular  sides  from  the  level 
of  the  ocean,  only  the  eagle  and  the  lightning  could 
gain  its  top.  Now  its  easy  slope  allows  the  girl  to 
look  down  from  its  summit. 

What  is  true  in  the  world  of  matter  holds  also 
good  in  the  world  of  man.  There  is  no  leap,  a  slope 
always ;  never  a  spring.  The  continuity  of  historical 
succession  is  never  broke.  Newtons  and  Shak- 
speares  do  not  come  up  among  Hottentots  and  Es- 
quimaux, but  among  young  nations  inheriting  the 
old  culture.  Even  the  men  of  genius,  who  brood 
like  a  cloud  over  the  vulgar  herd,  have  then'  prede- 
cessors almost  as  high,  and  the  continuity  of  succes- 
sion holds  good  in  the  Archimedes,  the  Gallileos,  the 
Keplers,  the  Newtons,  and  the  La  Places.  Chris- 
tianity would  not  have  been  possible  in  the  time  of 
Moses;  nor  Protestantism  in  the  days  of  St.  Augus- 
tine ;  nor  a  New  England  Plymouth  in  the  days  of 
Luther ;  nor  any  national  recognition  of  the  Ameri- 
can Idea  in  1620.  That  Idea  could  not  become  a 
national  Fact  in  1776.     No,  not  yet  is  it  a  fact. 

First  comes  the  Sentiment  —  the  feeling  of  liberty; 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM    IN   AMERICA.  113 

next  the  Idea  —  the  distinct  notion  thereof;  then  the 
Fact  —  the  thought  become  a  thing.  Buds  in  March, 
blossoms  in  May,  apples  in  September  —  that  is  the 
law  of  historical  succession. 

The  Puritans  enslaved  the  Indians.  In  1675,  the 
Indian  apostle  petitioned  the  "  Honorable  Governor 
and  Council  sitting  at  Boston,  this  13th  of  the  6th, 
'75,"  that  they  would  not  allow  Indians  to  be  sold 
into  slavery.  But  John  Eliot  stood  wellnigh  alone 
in  that  matter.  For  three  months  later,  I  find  the 
Governor,  Leveret,  gives  a  bill  of  sale  of  seven  In- 
dians, "  to  be  sold  for  slaves,"  and  affixes  thereto  the 
"  Publique  Scale  of  the  Colony." 

Well,  there  has  been  a  great  progress  from  that 
day  to  the  Twelfth  of  April,  1851,  when  the  mer- 
chants of  Boston  had  to  break  the  laws  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  put  the  court  house  in  chains,  and  get  the 
chains  over  the  neck  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  call 
out  the  Sims  brigade,  before  they  could  kidnap  and 
enslave  a  single  fugitive  from  Georgia. 

But  it  would  not  be  historical  to  expect  a  nation 
to  realize  its  own  Idea  at  once,  and  allow  all  men  to 
be  "equal"  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  "natural  and 
unalienable  rights."  Still,  there  has  been  a  great 
progress  towards  that  in  the  last  seventy-six  years, 
spite  of  the  steps  taken  backward  in  some  parts  of 
the  land.  It  is  not  a  hundred  and  ten  years  since 
slaves  were  advertised  for  sale  in  Boston,  as  now  in 
Norfolk ;  not  eighty  years  since  they  were  property 
10* 


114  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM  IN   AMERICA. 

in  Massachusetts,  and  appraised  in  the  inventories  of 
deceased  "  Republicans."  So  then  the  cause  of  Af- 
rican freedom  has  a  more  auspicious  look  on  the 
Fourth  of  July,  1852,  than  it  had  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1776.  We  do  not  always  think  so,  because  we 
look  at  the  present  evil,  not  at  the  greater  evils  of 
the  past.  So  much  for  the  general  aspect  of  this 
matter. 

Look  now  at  the  present  position  of  the  Political 
Parties.  There  are  two  great  parties  in  America  — 
only  two.  I.  One  is  the  Pro-Slavery  Party.  This 
has  not  yet  attained  a  distinct  consciousness  of  its 
idea  and  consequent  function  ;  so  there  is  contradic- 
tion in  its  opinions,  vacillation  in  its  conduct,  and 
heterogeneous  elements  in  its  ranks.  This  has  two 
divisions,  namely :  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats. 
The  two  are  one  great  national  party  —  they  are 
one  in  slavery,  as  all  sects  are  "one  in  Christ."  Yet 
they  still  keep  up  their  distinctive  banners,  and  shout 
their  hostile  war-cry ;  but  when  they  come  to  action, 
they  both  form  column  under  the  same  leader,  and 
fight  for  the  same  end  —  the  promotion,  the  exten- 
sion, and  the  perpetuation  of  slavery. 

Once  the  Whig  Party  wanted  a  Bank.  Democ- 
racy trod  it  to  the  earth.  Then  the  Whigs  clamored 
for  a  protective  Tariff.  That  also  seems  now  an  ob- 
solete idea,  and  a  revenue  tariff  is  a  fact  accom- 
plished.    The  old  issues  between  Whig  and  Demo- 


ASPECT    OF    FREEDOM    IN    AMERICA.  115 

crat  are  out  of  date.  Shall  it  be  said  the  Whigs 
want  a  strong  central  government,  and  the  Demo- 
crats are  still  anti-federal,  and  opposed  to  the  cen- 
tralization of  power  ?  [t  is  not  so.  I  can  see  no 
difference  in  the  two  parties  in  this  matter ;  both  are 
ready  to  sacrifice  the  individual  conscience  to  the 
brute  power  of  arbitrary  law  ;  each  to  crush  the  in- 
dividual rights  of  the  separate  States  before  the  cen- 
tral power  of  the  federal  government.  In  passing  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  which  aims  at  both  these  enor- 
mities, the  Democrats  outvied  the  Whigs  ;  in  exe- 
cuting it,  the  Whigs  outdo  the  Democrats,  and  kid- 
nap with  a  more  malignant  relish.  I  believe  the 
official  kidnappers  are  all  Whigs,  in  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Buffalo. 

Both  parties  have  now  laid  down  their  Platforms, 
and  nominated  their  candidates  for  the  Presidency, 
and  hoisted  them  thereon.  Their  platforms  are 
erected  on  slave  soil,  and  made  of  slave  timber.  Both 
express  the  same  devotion  to  slavery,  the  same  ac- 
quiescence in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  The  Whig 
Party  says,  we  "  will  discountenance  all  efforts  at  the 
renewal  or  continuance  of  such  agitation  [on  the 
subject  of  slavery,]  in  Congress  or  out  of  it  —  when- 
ever, wherever,  or  however  the  attempt  may  be 
made."  The  Democrats  say  they  "  will  resist  all 
attempts  at  reviving,  in  Congress  or  out  of  it,  the 
agitation  of  the  slavery  question,  under  whatever 
shape  or  color  the  attempt  may  be  made."     There  is 


116  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA. 

the  difference ;  one  will  discountenance,  and  the  other 
resist  all  agitation  of  the  question  which  concerns 
the  freedom  of  three  million  American  citizens.  Sla- 
very is  their  point  of  agreement. 

Both  have  nominated  their  champions  —  each  a 
"  General."  They  have  passed  by  the  eminent  politi- 
cians, and  selected  men  whose  political  experience  is 
insignificant.  The  Democratic  champion  from  New 
Hampshire  jumps  upon  one  platform,  the  Whig 
champion  from  New  Jersey  jumps  upon  the  other, 
and  each  seems  to  like  that  "bad  eminence"  very 
well.  But  I  believe  that  at  what  old  politicians  have 
left  of  a  heart,  both  dislike  slavery  —  perhaps  about 
equally.  General  Pierce,  in  a  public  meeting,  I  am 
told,  declared  that  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was 
against  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  and 
against  natural  moral  right.  General  Scott,  I  am 
told,  in  a  private  conversation,  observed,  that  if  he 
were  elected  President,  he  would  never  appoint  a 
slave-holder  as  Judge  in  any  territory  of  the  United 
States.  Their  letters  accepting  the  nomination  show 
the  value  of  such  public  or  private  ejaculations. 

It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  War  and  Slavery 
should  be  the  sine  qna  non  in  the  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  United  States,  and  of  no  other  country.  A  wo- 
man may  be  Queen  of  England,  and  rule  one  hun- 
dred millions  of  men,  and  yet  not  favor  the  selling  of 
Christians.  A  man  may  be  "Prince  President"  of 
the  mock  republic  of  France,  and  hate  slavery ;  he 


ASPECT    OF    FREEDOM    IN    AMERICA.  117 

may  be  Emperor  of  Austria,  or  Autocrat  of  all  the 
Russias,  and  think  kidnapping  is  a  sin  ;  yes,  he  may 
be  Sultan  of  Turkey,  and  believe  it  self-evident  that 
all  men  are  created  equal,  with  a  natural,  inherent, 
and  unalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness  I  But,  to  be  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  man  must  be  devoted  to  slavery,  and  be- 
lieve in  the  "  finality  of  the  compromise  measures," 
and  promise  to  discountenance  or  to  resist  all  agita- 
tion of  the  subject  of  slavery,  whenever,  wherever,  or 
however  I     Truly,  "  it  is  a  great  country." 

That  is  the  aspect  of  the  great  Pro-Slavery  Party 
of  America.  But  I  must  say  a  word  of  the  late 
Whig  convention.  It  resulted  in  one  of  the  most 
signal  defeats  that  ever  happened  to  an  American 
statesman.  Even  Aaron  Burr  did  not  fall  so  sud- 
denly and  deep  into  the  ground,  at  his  first  downfall, 
as  Daniel  Webster. 

If  I  am  rightly  informed,  Mr.  Mason,  in  1850, 
brought  forward  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  with  no  ex- 
pectation that  it  would  pass;  perhaps  with  no  desire 
that  it  should  pass.  If  it  were  rejected,  then  there 
was  what  seemed  a  tangible  grievance,  which  the 
disunionists  would  lay  hold  of,  as  they  cried  for 
"  secession."  I  do  not  know  that  it  was  so  ;  I  am 
told  so.  He  introduced  the  Bill.  Mr.  Webster 
seized  it,  made  it  his  "thunder"  on  the  7th  of  March, 
1850.     It  seemed  a  tangible  thing  for  him  to   hold 


118  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA. 

on  by,  while  he  pushed  from  under  him  his  old  plat- 
form of  liberty,  made  of  such  timbers  as  his  orations 
at  Plymouth,  at  Bunker  Hill,  at  Faneuil  Hall  —  his 
speech  for  the  Greeks,  and  his  speech  against  Gen. 
Taylor.  He  held  on  to  it  for  two  years,  and  three 
months,  and  fourteen  days  ;  —  a  long  time  for  him. 
He  took  hold  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850 ;  and  on  the 
21st  of  June,  1852,  his  hands  slipped  off,  and  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  took  flight  towards  the  Presi- 
dency, without  Daniel  Webster,  but  with  Gen.  Pierce 
at  one  end  of  it,  and  Gen.  Scott  at  the  other. 

"  The  fiery  pomp  ascending  left  the  view ; 
The  prophet  gazed  —  and  wished  to  follow  too." 

The  downfall  of  Daniel  "Webster  is  terrible  :  —  it 
was  sudden,  complete,  and  final.  He  has  fallen 
"  like  Lucifer  —  never  to  hope  again." 

His  giant  strength  was  never  so  severely  tasked  as 
in  the  support  of  slavery.  What  pains  he  took  — 
up  early  and  down  late !  What  speeches  he  made, 
—  at  Boston,  New  York,  Albany,  Syracuse,  Roches- 
ter, Buffalo,  at  Philadelphia,  and  I  know  not  at  how 
many  other  places !  What  letters  he  wrote  !  And 
it  was  all  to  end  in  this  !  What  a  fee  for  what  a 
pleading  !     He  was  never  so  paid  before. 

The  pride  of  Boston  —  its  Hunkerism — ten  hun- 
dred strong,  went  to  Baltimore  to  see  him  rise. 
They  came  back  amazed  at  the  totality  of  his  down- 
fall! 


ASPECT   OF  FREEDOM   IN  AMERICA.  119 

I  think  this  was  at  first  the  plan  of  some  of  the 
most  skilful  of  the  Northern  leaders  of  the  Whigs, 
to  nominate  General  Scott  without  a  platform  — 
not  committed  to  slavery  or  to  freedom ;  then  to  rep- 
resent him  as  opposed  to  slavery,  and  so  on  that 
ground  to  commend  him  to  the  North,  and  carry  the 
election  ;  for  any  day  when  the  North  rallies,  it  can 
outvote  the  South.  But  some  violent  pro-slavery 
men  framed  the  present  platform,  and  brought  it  for- 
ward. The  policy  of  Mr.  Webster's  friends  would 
have  been  to  say  —  "  We  need  no  platform  for  Mr. 
Webster.  The  speech  of  March  7th  is  his  platform. 
Mr.  Fillmore  needs  none.  General  Scott  needs  a 
platform,  for  you  don't  know  his  opinions."  But, 
"  it  is  enough  for  the  servant  that  he  be  as  his  mas- 
ter." As  Mr.  Webster  had  caught  at  Mason's  Bill, 
so  the  "  Retainers  "  caught  at  the  Northern  platform, 
and  one  who  has  a  great  genius  for  oratory  enlarged 
on  its  excellence,  and  whitewashed  it  all  over  with 
his  peculiar  rhetoric.  The  platform  was  set  up  by 
the  Convention,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  "  Retainers  " 
from  New  England  ;  when  all  at  once,  the  image  of 
General  Scott  appeared  upon  it !  He  as  well  as 
Fillmore  or  Webster  can  stand  there.  ^  This  was  the 
weight  that  pulled  them  down ;  for  after  Scott  had 
signified  his  willingness  to  accept  the  platform,  the 
great  objection  to  him  on  the  part  of  the  South  was 
destroyed. 

The  defeat  of  Mr.  Webster  is  complete  and  awful. 


120  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA. 

In  fifty-three  ballotings,  he  never  went  beyond  thirty- 
two  votes  out  of  293.  Fifty-three  times  was  the 
vote  taken,  and  fifty-three  times  the  whole  South 
voted  against  him.  When  it  became  apparent  that 
the  vote  would  fall  to  General  Scott,  Mr.  Webster's 
friends  went  and  begged  the  Southerners  to  give 
him  a  few  votes,  votes  which  could  then  do  Mr.  Fill- 
more no  good  ;  but  the  South  answered  —  7iot  a 
vote  !  They  went  with  tears  in  their  eyes  ;  still  the 
South  answered  —  not  a  vote  !  That  is  a  remark- 
able "  chapter  in  History  I  " 

Now  that  the  great  man  has  fallen,  —  utterly  and 
terribly  fallen,  —  a  warning  for  many  an  age  to 
come,  I  feel  inclined  to  remember  not  only  the  jus- 
tice of  the  judgment,  but  the  great  powers  and  the 
great  services  of  the  victim.  I  wish  something  may 
be  done  to  comfort  him  in  his  failure,  and  am  glad 
that  his  friends  now  seek  an  opportunity  to  express 
their  esteem.  Words  of  endearment  are  worth  some- 
thing when  deeds  of  succor  fail,  and  when  words 
of  consolation  awake  no  hope.  I  think  the  anti- 
slavery  men  have  dared  to  be  just  towards  Mr. 
Webster,  when  he  thundered  from  the  seat  of  his 
power ;  now  let  us  be  generous.  I  hope  no  needless 
word  of  delight  at  his  fall  will  be  spoken  by  any  one 
of  us.  If  we  fought  against  the  lion  in  his  pride, 
and  withstood  his  rage  and  his  roar,  let  us  now  re- 
member that  he  was  a  lion,  and  not  insult  the  pros- 
trate majesty  of  mighty  power.     "  It  w^as  a  grievous 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA.  121 

fault,  and  grievously  hath  Webster  answered  it." 
But  there  was  greatness,  even  nobleness  in  the  man  ; 
and  much  to  excuse  so  monstrous  a  departure  from 
the  true  and  right.  He  was  a  bankrupt  politician, 
and  fancied  that  he  saw  within  his  grasp  the  scope 
and  goal  of  all  his  life  ;  he  represented  a  city  whose 
controlling  inhabitants  prize  gold  and  power  above 
all  things,  and  are  not  very  scrupulous  about  the 
means  to  obtain  either ;  men  that  run  their  taxes,  let 
shops  for  drunkeries  and  houses  for  brothels,  and 
bribe  a  senator  of  the  nation !  The  New  England 
doctors  of  divinity,  in  the  name  of  God,  justified  his 
greatest  crime.  Do  you  expect  more  piety  in  the 
bear-garden  of  politics,  than  in  the  pulpit  of  the 
Christian  church  ?  Let  us  remember  these  things 
when  the  mighty  is  fallen.  Let  us  pity  the  lion  now 
that  his  mane  is  draggled  in  the  dust,  and  his  mouth 
filled  with  Southern  dirt.  Blame  there  must  be  in- 
deed ;  but  pity  for  fallen  greatness  should  yet  prevail 
—  not  the  pity  of  contempt,  but  the  pity  of  compas- 
sion, the  pity  of  love.  Let  us  gather  up  the  white 
ashes  of  him  who  perished  at  the  political  stake, 
and  do  loving  honor  to  any  good  thing  in  his  charac- 
ter and  his  life.  If  we  err  at  all,  let  it  be  on  the  side 
of  charity.     We  all  need  that. 

If  General  Scott  is  President,  I  take  it  we  shall 
have  a  moderate  pro-slavery  administration,  fussy  and 
feathery ;  that  we  shall  take  a  large  slice  from  Mexico 

VOL.    I.  11 


122  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA. 

during  the  next  four  years.  General  Scott  is  a  mili- 
tary man,  of  an  unblemished  character,  I  believe  — 
that  is,  with  no  unpopular  vices  —  but  with  the  pre- 
judices of  a  military  man.  He  proposes  to  confer 
citizenship  on  any  foreigner  who  has  served  a  year 
in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States,  and  seems 
to  think  a  year  of  work  at  fighting  is  as  good  a 
qualification  for  American  citizenship  as  five  years 
industrious  life  on  a  farm,  or  in  a  shop.  This  is  a 
little  too  military  for  the  American  taste,  but  will 
suit  the  military  gentlemen  who  like  to  magnify 
their  calling. 

If  General  Pierce  is  chosen,  I  take  it  we  shall  have 
a  strong  pro-slavery  administration ;  shall  get  the 
slice  of  Mexico,  and  Cuba  besides,  in  the  next  four 
years.  "  Manifest  destiny  "  will  probably  point  that 
way. 

I  do  not  know  that  it  will  not  be  better  for  the 
cause  of  freedom  that  Pierce  should  succeed.  Per- 
haps the  sooner  this  whole  matter  is  brought  to  a 
crisis,  the  better.  In  each  party  there  is  a  large  body 
of  Hunkers,  —  men  who  care  little  or  nothing  for  the 
natural  rights  of  man  ;  mean,  selfish  men,  who  seek 
only  their  own  gratification,  and  care  not  at  what 
cost  to  mankind  this  is  procured.  If  the  Whig 
Party  is  defeated,  I  take  it  the  majority  of  these 
Hunkers  will  gradually  faU  in  with  the  Democrats  ; 
that  the  Whig  Party  will  not  rally  again  under  its 
old  name  ;  that  the  party  of  Hunkers  will  hoist  the 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA.  123 

flag  of  slavery,  and  the  whole  hosts  of  noble,  honest, 
and  religious  men  in  both  parties  will  flee  out  from 
under  that  flag,  and  go  over  to  the  Party  of  Free- 
dom. Now  the  sooner  this  separation  of  the  ele- 
ments takes  place,  the  better.  Then  we  shall  know 
who  are  our  friends,  who  our  foes.  Men  will  have 
the  real  issue  set  before  them.  But,  until  the  sepa- 
ration is  effected,  many  good  men  will  cling  to  their 
old  party  organization,  with  the  delusive  hope  of  op- 
posing slavery  thereby.  Thus  we  see  two  such  valu- 
able newspapers  as  the  New  York  Evening  Post  and 
the  Tribune,  with  strong  anti-slavery  feelings,  at  work 
for  the  Democrats  or  the  Whigs.  I  think  this  is  the 
last  Presidential  election  in  which  such  journals  will 
defend  such  a  platform. 

11,  Look  at  the  Anti-Slavery  Party.  Here 
also  are  two  great  divisions  :  one  is  political,  the 
other  moral.  A  word  of  each  —  of  the  political 
party  first. 

This  is  formed  of  three  sections.  One  is  the  Free 
Soil  party,  which  has  come  mainly  from  the  Whigs ; 
the  next  is  the  Free  Democracy,  the  Barnburners, 
who  have  come  mainly  from  the  Democrats.  Each 
of  these  has  the  prejudices  of  its  own  historical  tra- 
dition—  Whig  prejudices  or  Democratic  prejudices; 
it  has  also  the  excellences  of  its  primal  source.  I 
include  the   Liberty  party  in  this  Free   Soil,  Free 


124  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN    AMERICA. 

Democratic  division.  They  differ  from  the  other  in 
this  —  a  denial  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  authorizes  or  allows  slavery ;  a  denial  that 
slavery  is  constitutional  in  the  nation,  or  even  legal 
in  any  State. 

But  all  these  agree  in  a  strong  feeling  against  sla- 
very. They  are  one  in  freedom,  as  the  "Whigs  and 
Democrats  are  one  in  slavery.  Part  of  this  feeling 
they  have  translated  into  an  Idea.  To  express  it  in 
their  most  general  terms — Slavery  is  sectional,  not 
national ;  belongs  to  the  State,  and  not  the  Federal 
Government.  Hence  they  aim  to  cut  the  nation 
free  from  slavery  altogether,  but  will  leave  it  to  the 
individual  States. 

This  political  Anti-Slavery  party  is  a  very  strong 
party.  It  is  considerable  by  its  numbers  —  power- 
ful enough  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  several 
of  the  States.  Four  years  ago,  it  cast  three  hundred 
thousand  votes.  This  year  I  think  it  will  go  up  to 
four  hundred  thousand. 

But  it  is  stronger  in  the  talent  and  character  of  its 
eminent  men,  than  in  the  force  of  its  numbers.  You 
know  those  men.  I  need  not  speak  of  Chase  and 
Hale,  of  Giddings  and  of  Mann,  with  their  coadju- 
tors in  Congress  and  out  of  it.  Look  at  names  not 
so  well  known  as  yet  in  our  national  debates.  Here 
is  a  noble  speech  from  Mr.  Townshend,  one-  new 
ally  in  the  field  from  the  good  State  of  Ohio.  This 
is  the  first  speech  of  his  that  I  have  ever  read ;  it  is 


ASPECT    OF   FREEDOM   IN"   AMERICA.  125 

full  of  promise.     There  is  conscience  in  this   man ; 
there  is  power  of  work  in  him. 

Mr.  Rantoul  has  done  honorably  —  done  nobly, 
indeed.  What  he  will  say  to-day,  I  shall  not  pre- 
tend to  calculate.  He  is  a  politician,  like  others,  and 
in  a  very  dangerous  position ;  but  I  have  much  faith 
in  him  ;  and,  at  any  rate,  I  thank  God  for  what  he 
has  done  already.  He  is  a  man  of  a  good  deal  of 
ability,  and  may  be  trusted  yet  to  do  us  good  service, 
not  in  your  way  or  my  way,  but  in  his   own  way. 

I  ought  to  say  a  word  of  Mr.  Sumner.  I  know 
that  he  has  disappointed  the  expectations  of  his  best 
friends  by  keeping  silent  so  long.  But  Mr.  Sumner's 
whole  life  shows  him  to  be  an  honest  man,  not  a  sel- 
fish man  at  all — a  man  eminently  sincere,  and 
eminently  trustworthy,  eminently  just.  He  has  a 
right  to  choose  his  own  time  to  speak.  I  wish  he 
had  spoken  long  ago,  and  I  doubt  if  this  long  delay 
is  wholly  wise  for  him.  But  it  is  for  him  to  decide, 
not  for  us.  "  A  fool's  bolt  is  soon  shot,"  while  a 
wise  man  often  reserves  his  fire.  He  should  not  be 
taunted  with  his  remarks  made  when  he  had  no 
thought  of  an  election  to  the  Senate.  A  man  often 
thinks  a  thing  easy,  which  he  finds  difficult  when  he 
comes  up  to  the  spot.  But  this  winter  past,  Mr. 
Sumner  has  not  been  idle.  I 'have  a  letter  from  an 
eminent  gentleman  at  Washington,  —  a  man  bred  in 
kings'  courts  abroad,  —  who  assures  me  that  Sumner 
has  carried  the  ideas  of  freedom  where  they  have 
11* 


126  ASPECT    OF    FREEDOM    IN    AMERICA. 

never  been  carried  before,  and  when  he  speaks,  will 
be  listened  to  with  much  more  interest  than  if  he 
had  uttered  his  speech  at  his  first  entrance  to  Con- 
gress. Depend  upon  it,  we  shall  hear  the  right  word 
from  Charles  Sumner,  yet.  I  do  not  believe  that  he 
has  w^aited  to  make  it  easy  for  him  to  speak,  but 
that  it  may  be  better  for  his  Idea,  and  the  cause  of 
Freedom  he  was  sent  there  to  represent. 

Then  there  is  another  man  of  great  mark  on  the 
same  side.  I  mean  Mr.  Seward.  He  is  nominally 
with  the  Whigs,  but  he  is  really  of  the  Political 
Anti-Slavery  Party,  the  chief  man  in  it.  Just  now 
he  has  more  influence  than  any  man  in  the  Northern 
States,  and  is  the  only  prominent  Whig  politician  of 
whom  we  might  wisely  predict  a  brilliant  future. 
General  Scott,  I  take  it,  owes  his  nomination  to 
Senator  Seward.  In  the  Convention,  he  seems  to 
have  wished  for  three  things  :  —  1.  To  defeat  Mr. 
Webster  at  all  events.  2.  To  defeat  Mr.  Fillmore, 
if  possible.  3.  To  have  the  nomination  of  General 
Scott,  wdthout  a  platform,  if  possible,  but  if  not, 
with  a  platform,  even  with  the  present  platform. 
Had  General  Scott  been  nominated  without  a  sla- 
very platform,  I  think  Mr.  Seward,  and  many  other 
leading  Free  Soilers,  would  have  stood  by  to  help 
'his  election — would  have  taken  office  had  he  suc- 
ceeded, and  I  think  his  chance  of  success  would  not 
have  been  a  bad  one  then.  But  now"  Mr.  Seward 
stands  out  for  a  more  distant  day.     He  will  not  ac- 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA.  127 

cept  office  under  General  Scott.  He  sees  that  Scott 
is  a  compromise  candidate,  conceded  by  the  fears  of 
the  South ;  that  his  administration  must  be  a  com- 
promise administration,  and  he  that  succeeds 
on  that  basis  now  is  sure  to  be  overtaken  by 
political  ruin  at  no  distant  day.  He  reserves  his 
fire  till  he  is  nearer  the  mark !  I  think  we  may  yet 
see  him  the  candidate  of  a  great  Northern  Party  for 
the  Presidency ;  see  him  elected. 

Such  is  the  aspect  of  the  Political  Anti- Slavery 
Party.  It  defeated  the  strongest  pro-slavery  section 
of  the  Whigs  in  their  convention,  defeated  them  of 
their  candidate,  sent  the  one  thousand  Hunkers  of 
Boston  home  from  Baltimore,  in  a  rather  melancholy 
state  of  mind.  We  shall  soon  see  what  it  will  do 
in  its  national  convention  at  Pittsburgh,  on  the  11th 
of  August. 

Now  a  word  on  the  Moral  division  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  party.  I  use  the  word  Moral  merely  as 
opposed  to  Political.  It  is  a  party  not  organized  to 
get  votes,  but  to  kindle  a  Sentiment  and  diffuse  an 
Idea.  Its  Sentiment  is  that  of  Universal  Philan- 
thropy, specially  directed  towards  the  African  Race 
in  America.  Its  Idea  is  the  American  Idea,  of 
which  it  has  a  quite  distinct  consciousness — the 
Idea  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  does 
not  limit  itself  by  constitutional,  but  only  by  moral 
restrictions. 


128  ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IX   AMERICA. 

The  functions  of  this  party  is  to  kindle  the  Senti- 
ment and  diffuse  the  Idea  of  Universal  Freedom.  It 
is  about  this  work  to-day.  These  four  thousand 
faces  before  me  at  this  moment  are  lit  with  this 
Idea ;  the  other  thousands  beyond  the  reach  of  my 
voice  are  not  without  it.  It  will  not  be  satisfied  till 
there  is  not  a  slave  in  America  —  not  a  slave  in  the 
world. 

This  party  is  powerful  by  its  Sentiments,  its  Ideas, 
and  its  Eminent  Men ;  not  yet  by  its  numbers. 
Here  is  one  indication  of  its  power  —  the  absolute 
hatred  in  which  it  is  held  by  all  the  Hunkers  of  the 
land.  How  Mr.  Webster  speaks  of  this  party ;  with 
the  intense  malignity  of  affected  scorn.  Men  do  not 
thus  hate  a  mouse  in  the  wall.  Then  the  abuse 
which  we  receive  from  all  the  gnats  and  mosquitoes 
of  the  political  penny  press  is  a  sign  also  of  our 
power.  There  are  Hunkers  who  know  that  our 
Ideas  are  just  —  that  they  will  be  triumphant;  hence 
their  hate  of  our  Ideas,  and  their  hate  of  us. 

Well,  gentlemen,  the  cause  of  freedom  looks  very 
auspicious  to-day :  it  never  looked  better.  Every 
apparent  national  triumph  of  slavery  is  only  a  step 
to  its  defeat.  The  annexation  of  Texas,  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill,  are  measures  that  ultimately  will 
help  the  cause  of  freedom.  At  first,  if  a  man  is 
threatened  with  a  fever,  the  doctor  tries  to  "  throw  it 
off."     If  that  is  impossible,  he  hastens  the  crisis  — 


ASPECT   OF   FREEDOM   IN   AMERICA.  129 

knowing  that  the  sooner  that  comes,  the  sooner  will 
the  man  be  well  again.  I  think  General  Pierce  will 
hasten  the  crisis,  when  a  Northern  party  shall  get 
founded,  with  the  American  Idea  for  its  motto. 
The  recent  action  of  Congress,  the  recent  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  recent  action  of  the  Exec- 
utive, have  de  facto  established  this  :  that  slavery  in 
the  States  is  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Federal 
Government.  True,  they  apply  this  only  to  the 
Northern  States ;  but  if  the  Federal  Government 
can  interfere  with  slavery  in  Massachusetts,  to  the 
extent  of  kidnapping  a  man  in  Boston,  and  keeping 
him  in  duresse  by  force  of  armed  soldiers,  then  the 
principle  is  established,  that  the  Federal  Government 
may  interfere  with  slavery  in  South  Carolina ;  and 
when  we  get  the  spirit  of  the  North  aroused,  and  the 
numbers  of  the  North  on  the  side  of  freedom,  it  will 
take  but  a  whifF  of  breath  to  annihilate  human 
bondage  from  the  Delaware  to  the  Sacramento. 

Even  the  course  of  Politics  is  in  our  favor.  The 
spirit  of  this  Teutonic  family  of  men  is  hostile  to 
slavery.  We  alone  preserve  slavery  which  all  the 
other  tribes  have  cast  off.  We  cannot  keep  it  long. 
The  Ideas  of  America,  the  Ideas  of  Christianity,  are 
against  it.  The  spirit  of  the  age  is  hostile  —  ay,  the 
spirit  of  mankind  and  the  Nature  of  the  Infinite 
God! 


DISCOUESE 


OCCASIONED   BY   THE 


DEATH  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


PREACHED     AT     THE    MELODEON 


ON    SUNDAY,    OCTOBEE    31,    1852 


PREFACE. 


It  is  now  four  months  since  the  delivery  of  this  Sermon. 
A  phonographic  report  of  it  was  pubHshed  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  quite  extensively  circulated  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Since  then,  I  have  taken  pains  to  examine  anew 
the  life  and  actions  of  the  distinguished  man  who  is  the 
theme  of  the  discourse.  I  have  carefully  read  all  the  criti- 
cisms on  my  estimate  of  him,  which  came  to  hand;  I  have 
diligently  read  the  most  important  sermons  and  other  dis- 
courses which  treat  of  him,  and  have  conversed  anew  with 
persons  who  have  known  Mr.  Webster  at  all  the  various  pe- 
riods of  his  life.  The  result  is  embodied  in  the  following 
pages. 

My  estimate  of  Mr.  Webster  differs  from  that  which 
seems  to  prevail  just  now  in  Church  and  State;  differs 
widely ;  differs  profoundly.  I  did  not  suppose  that  my 
judgment  upon  him  would  pass  unchallenged.  I  have  not 
been  surprised  at  the  swift  condemnation  which  many  men 
have  pronounced  upon  this  sermon,  —  upon  the  statements 
therein,  and  the  motives  thereto.  I  should  be  sorry  to  find 
that  Americans  valued   a  great  man  so   little  as  to  have 

VOL.  I.  12 


134  PREFACE. 

nothing  to  say  in  defence  of  one  so  long  and  so  conspicu- 
ously before  the  public.  The  violence  and  rage  directed 
against  me  is  not  astonishing ;  it  is  not  even  new.  I  am 
not  vain  enough  to  fancy  that  I  have  never  been  mistaken 
in  a  fact  of  Mr.  "Webster's  history,  or  in  my  judgment  pro- 
nounced on  any  of  his  actions,  words,  or  motives.  I  can 
only  say  I  have  done  what  I  could.  If  I  have  committed 
any  errors,  I  hope  they  will  be  pointed  out.  Fifty  years 
hence,  the  character  of  Mr.  Webster  and  his  eminent  con- 
temporaries will  be  better  understood  than  now  ;  for  we  have 
not  yet  all  the  evidence  on  which  the  final  judgment  of  pos- 
terity will  rest.  Thomas  Hutchinson  and  John  Adams  are 
better  known  now  than  at  the  day  of  their  death ;  five  and 
twenty  years  hence  they  will  both  be  better  known  than  at 
present. 

BosTOK,  March  7, 1853. 


INTRODUCTION, 


TO     THE    YOUNG    MEN     OF    AMERICA. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  address  this  Discourse  to  you  in 
particular,  and  by  way  of  introduction  will  say  a  few 
words. 

We  are  a  young  nation,  three  and  twenty  millions 
strong,  rapidly  extending  in  our  geographic  spread,  en- 
larging rapidly  in  numerical  power,  and  greatening  our 
material  strength  with  a  swiftness  which  has  no  example. 
Soon  we  shall  spread  over  the  whole  continent,  and 
number  a  hundred  million  men.  America  and  England 
are  but  parts  of  the  same  nation,  —  a  younger  and  an  older 
branch  of  the  same  Anglo-Saxon  stem.  Our  character  will 
affect  that  of  the  mother  country,  as  her  good  and  evil 
still  influence  us.  Considering  the  important  place  which 
the  Anglo-Saxon  tribe  holds  in  the  world  at  this  day,  — 
occupying  one  eighth  part  of  the  earth,  and  controlling  one 
sixth  part  of  its  inhabitants,  —  the  national  character  of 
England  and  America  becomes  one  of  the  great  human 
forces  which  is  to  control  the  world  for  some  ages  to  come. 

In  the  American  character  there  are  some  commanding 


136  INTRODUCTION. 

and  noble  qualities.  We  have  founded  some  political  and 
ecclesiastical  institutions  which  seem  to  me  the  proudest 
achievements  of  mankind  in  Church  and  State.  But  there 
are  other  qualities  in  the  nation's  character  which  are  mean 
and  selfish  ;  we  have  founded  other  institutions,  or  confirmed 
such  as  we  inherited,  which  were  the  weakness  of  a  former 
and  darker  age,  and  are  the  shame  of  this. 

The  question  comes,  "Which  qualities  shall  prevail  in  the 
character  and  in  the  institutions  of  America,  —  the  noble,  or 
the  mean  and  selfish  ?  Shall  America  govern  herself  by 
the  eternal  laws,  as  they  are  discerned  through  the  con- 
science of  mankind,  or  by  the  transient  appetite  of  the  hour, 
—  the  lust  for  land,  for  money,  for  power,  or  fame  ?  That 
is  a  question  for  you  to  settle  ;  and,  as  you  decide  for  God 
or  Mammon,  so  follows  the  weal  or  woe  of  millions  of  men. 
Our  best  institutions  are  an  experiment :  shall  it  fail  ?  If  so, 
it  will  be  through  your  fault.  You  have  the  power  to  make 
it  succeed.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  any  foreign  foe, 
much  to  dread  from  Wrong  at  home  :  will  you  suffer  that  to 
work  our  overthrow  ? 

The  two  chief  forms  of  American  action  are  Business  and 
Politics,  —  the  commercial  and  the  political  form.  The  two 
humbler  forms  of  our  activity,  the  Church  and  the  Press, 
the  ecclesiastic  and  the  literary  form,  —  are  subservient  to 
the  others.  Hence  it  becomes  exceedingly  important  to 
study  carefully  our  commercial  and  political  action,  criti- 
cizing both  by  the  Absolute  Eight  ;  for  they  control  the 
development  of  the  people,  and  determine  our  character. 
The  commercial  and  political  forces  of  the  time  culminate 
in  the  leading   politicians,  who  represent    those  forces    in 


INTRODUCTION.  137 

their  persons,  and  direct  the  energies  of"  the  people  to  evil 
or  to  good. 

It  is  for  this  i*eason,  young  men,  that  I  have  spoken  so 
many  times  from  the  pulpit  on  the  great  political  questions 
of  the  day,  and  on  the  great  political  men  ;  for  this  reason 
did  I  preach  ancL  now  again  publish,  this  Discourse,  on  one 
of  the  most  eminent  Americans  of  our  day,  —  that  men  may 
be  warned  of  the  evil  in  our  Business  and  our  State,  and 
be  guided  to  the  Eternal  Justice  which  is  the  foundation  of 
the  common  weal.  There  is  a  Higher  Law  of  God,  written 
imperishably  on  the  Nature  of  Things,  and  in  the  Nature  of 
Man  ;  and,  if  this  nation  continually  violates  that  Law,  then 
we  fall  a  ruin  to  the  ground. 

If  there  be  any  Truth,  any  Justice,  in  my  counsel,  I 
hope  you  will  be  guided  thereby  ;  and,  in  your  commerce 
and  politics,  will  practise  on  the  truth  which  ages  confirm, 
that  Righteousness  exalteth  a  Nation,  while  Injustice  is 
a  reproach  to  any  People. 


12* 


DISCOURSE. 


When  Bossuet,  who  was  himself  the  eagle  of 
eloquence,  preached  the  funeral  discourse  on  Henri- 
etta Maria,  daughter  of  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France, 
and  wife  of  Charles  the  First  of  England,  he  had  a 
task  far  -easier  than  mine  to-day.  She  was  indeed 
the  queen  of  misfortunes;  the  daughter  of  a  king 
assassinated  in  his  own  capital,  and  the  wido\v  of  a 
king  judicially  put  to  death  in  front  of  his  own 
palace.  Her  married  life  was  bounded  by  the  mur- 
der of  her  royal  sire,  and  the  execution  of  her  kingly 
spouse ;  and  she  died  neglected,  far  from  kith  and 
kin.  But  for  that  great  man,  who  in  his  youth  Avas 
called,  prophetically,  a  "  Father  of  the  Church,"  the 
sorrows  of  her  birth  and  her  estate  made  it  easy  to 
gather  up  the  audience  in  his  arms,  to  moisten  the 
faces  of  men  with  tears,  to  show  them  the  nothing- 
ness of  mortal  glory,  and  the  beauty  of  eternal  life. 
He  led  his  hearers  to  his  conclusion  that  day,  as  the 


140  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

mother  lays  the  sobbing  child  in  her  bosom  to  still 
its  grief. 

To-day  it  is  not  so  with  me.  Of  all  my  public 
trials,  this  is  my  most  trying  day.  Give  me  your 
sympathies,  my  friends ;  remember  the  difficulty  of 
my  position,  —  its  delicacy  too. 

I  am  to  speak  of  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
men  that  New  England  ever  bore,  —  conspicuous, 
not  by  accident,  but  by  the  nature  of  his  mind, — 
one  of  her  ablest  intellects.  I  am  to  speak  of  an 
eminent  man,  of  great  power,  in  a  great  office,  one 
of  the  landmarks  of  politics,  now  laid  low.  He 
seemed  so  great  that  some  men  thought  he  was  him- 
self one  of  the  institutions  of  America.  I  am  to 
speak  while  his  departure  is  yet  but  of  yesterday ; 
while  the  sombre  flags  still  float  in  our  streets.  I 
am  no  party  man ;  you  know  I  am  not.  No  party 
is  responsible  for  me,  nor  I  to  any  one.  I  am  free 
to  commend  the  good  things  of  all  parties,  —  their 
great  and  good  men  ;  free  likewise  to  censure  the 
evil  of  all  parties.  You  will  not  ask  me  to  say  what 
only  suits  the  public  ear:  there  are  a  hundred  to  do 
that  to-day.  I  do  not  follow  opinion  because  popu- 
lar. I  cannot  praise  a  man  because  he  had  great 
gifts,  great  station,  and  great  opportunities ;  I  cannot 
harshly  censure  a  man  for  trivial  mistakes.  You 
will  not  ask  me  to  flatter  because  others  flatter ;  to 
condemn  because  the  ruts  of  condemnation  are  so 
deep  and  so  easy  to  travel  in.     It  is  unjust  to  be  un- 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  141 

generous,  either  in  praise  or  blame  :  only  the  truth 
is  beautiful  in  speech.  It  is  not  reverential  to  treat 
a  great  man  like  a  spoiled  child.  Most  of  you  are 
old  enough  to  know  that  good  and  evil  are  both  to 
be  expected  of  each  man,  I  hope  you  are  all  wise 
enough  to  discriminate  between  right  and  wrong. 

Give  me  your  sympathies.  This  I  am  sure  of,  — 
I  shall  be  as  tender  in  my  judgment  as  a  woman's 
love ;  I  will  try  to  be  as  fair  as  the  justice  of  a  man. 
I  shall  tax  your  time  beyond  even  my  usual  wont, 
for  I  cannot  crush  Olympus  into  a  nut.  Be  not 
alarmed:  if  I  tax  your  time  the  more,  I  shall  tire 
your  patience  less.  Such  a  day  as  this  will  never 
come  again  to  you  or  me.  There  is  no  Daniel 
Webster  left  to  die,  and  Nature  will  not  soon  give 
us  another  such  as  he.  I  will  take  care  by  my 
speech  that  you  sit  easy  on  your  bench.  The  theme 
will  assure  it  that  you  remember  what  I  say. 


A  great  man  is  the  blossom  of  the  world  ;  the  in- 
dividual and  prophetic  flower,  parent  of  seeds  that 
will  be  men.  This  is  the  greatest  work  of  God;  far 
transcending  earth,  and  moon,  and  sun,  and  all  the 
material  magnificence  of  the  universe.  It  is  "  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels,"  and,  like  the  aloe-tree,  it 
blooms  but  once  an  age.  So  we  should  value,  love, 
and  cherish  it  the  more.      America  has   not  many 


142  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

great  men  living  now, —  scarce  one  :  there  have  been 
few  in  her  history.  Fertile  in  multitudes,  she  is 
stingy  in  greatness,  —  her  works  mainly  achieved  by 
large  bodies  of  but  common  men.  At  this  day,  the 
world  has  not  many  natural  masters.  There  is  a 
dearth  of  great  men.  England  is  no  better  off  than 
we  her  child.  Sir  Robert  Peel  has  for  years  been 
dead.  Wellington's  soul  has  gone  home,  and  left 
his  body  awaiting  burial.  In  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  Russia,  few  greai  characters  appear.  The 
Revolution  of  1848,  which  found  every  thing  else, 
failed  because  it  found  not  them.  A  sad  Hungarian 
weeps  over  the  hidden  crown  of  Maria  Theresa ;  a 
sadder  countenance  drops  a  tear  for  the  nation  of 
Dante,  and  the  soil  of  Virgil  and  Caesar,  Lucretius 
and  Cicero.  To  me  these  two  seem  the  greatest 
men  of  Europe  now.  There  are  great  chemists,  great 
geologists,  great  philologians ;  but  of  gi-eat  men,  Chris- 
tendom has  not  many.  From  the  highest  places  of 
politics  greatness  recedes,  and  in  all  Europe  no 
kingly  intellect  now  throbs  beneath  a  royal  crown. 
Even  Nicholas  of  Russia  is  only  tall,  not  gi-eat. 

But  here  let  us  pause  a  moment,  and  see  what 
gi-eatness  is,  looking  at  the  progressive  formation  of 
the  idea  of  a  great  man. 

In  general,  greatness  is  emine)ice  of  ability  ;  so 
there  are  as  many  different  forms  thereof  as  there  are 
qualities  wherein  a  man  may  be  eminent.     These 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  143 

various  forms  of  greatness  should  be  distinctly 
marked,  that,  when  we  say  a  man  is  great,  we  may 
know  exactly  what  we  mean. 

In  the  rudest  ages,  when  the  body  is  man's  only 
tool  for  work  or  war,  eminent  Strength  of  Body  is 
the  thing  most  coveted.  Then,  and  so  long  as  human 
affairs  are  controlled  by  brute  force,  the  giant  is 
thought  to  be  the  great  man,  —  is  had  in  honor  for 
his  eminent  brute  strength. 

When  men  have  a  little  outgrown  that  period  of 
force.  Cunning  is  the  quality  most  prized.  The 
nimble  brain  outwits  the  heavy  arm,  and  brings  the 
circumvented  giant  to  the  ground.  He  who  can 
overreach  his  antagonist,  plotting  more  subtly,  win- 
ning with  more  deceitful  skill ;  who  can  turn  and 
double  on  his  unseen  track,  "  can  smile  and  smile, 
and  be  a  villain,"  —  he  is  the  great  man. 

Brute  force  is  merely  animal ;  cunning  is  the 
animalism  of  the  intellect,  —  the  mind's  least  intel- 
lectual element.  As  men  go  on  in  their  development, 
finding  qualities  more  valuable  than  the  strength  of 
the  lion  or  the  subtlety  of  the  fox,  they  come  to  value 
higher  intellectual  faculties,  —  great  Understanding, 
great  Imagination,  great  Reason.  Power  to  think 
is  then  the  faculty  men  value  most;  ability  to  devise 
means  for  attaining  ends  desired  ;  the  power  to 
originate  ideas,  to  express  them  in  speech,  to  organ- 
ize them  into  institutions  ;  to  organize  things  into  a 
machine,  men  into  an  army,  or  a  State,  or  a  gang  of 


144  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

operatives ;  to  administer  these  various  organiza- 
tions. He  who  is  eminent  in  this  ability  is  thought 
the  gi-eat  man. 

But  there  are  qualities  nobler  than  the  mere  intel- 
lect, the  Moral,  the  Affectional,  the  Religious  Facul- 
ties,—the  power  of  justice,  of  love,  of  holiness,  of 
trust  in  God,  and  of  obedience  to  his  law,  —  the 
Eternal  Right.  These  are  the  highest  qualities  of 
man :  whoso  is  most  eminent  therein  is  the  greatest 
of  great  men.  He  is  as  much  above  the  merely 
intellectual  great  men,  as  they  above  the  men  of  mere 
cunning  or  of  force. 

Thus,  then,  we  have  four  different  kinds  of  great- 
ness. Let  me  name  them  bodily  greatness,  crafty 
greatness,  intellectual  greatness,  religious  greatness. 
Men  in  different  degrees  of  development  will  value 
the  different  kinds  of  greatness.  Belial  cannot  yet 
honor  Christ.  How  can  the  little  girl  appreciate 
Aristotle  and  Kant?  The  child  thinks  as  a  child. 
You  must  have  manhood  in  you  to  honor  it  in 
others,  even  to  see  it. 

Yet  how  we  love  to  honor  men  eminent  in  such 
modes  of  greatness  as  we  can  understand  !  Indeed, 
we  must  do  so.  Soon  as  we  really  see  a  real  great 
man,  his  magnetism  draws  us,  will  we  or  no.  Do 
any  of  you  remember  when,  for  the  first  time  in 
adult  years,  you  stood  beside  the  ocean,  or  some 
great  mountain  of  New  Hampshire,  or  Virginia,  or 
Pennsylvania,  or  the  mighty  mounts   that  rise   in 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  145 

Switzerland  ?  Do  you  remember  what  emotions 
came  upon  you  at  the  awful  presence  ?  But  if  you 
are  confronted  by  a  man  of  vast  genius,  of  colossal 
history  and  achievements,  immense  personal  power 
of  wisdom,  justice,  philanthropy,  religion,  of  mighty 
power  of  will  and  mighty  act ;  if  you  feel  him  as 
you  feel  the  mountain  and  the  sea,  what  grander 
emotions  spring  up  !  It  is  like  making  the  acquaint- 
ance of  one  of  the  elementary  forces  of  the  earth, — 
like  associating  with  gravitation  itself!  The  stiffest 
neck  bends  over :  down  go  the  democratic  knees  ; 
human  nature  is  loyal  then  !  A  New  England  ship- 
master, wrecked  on  an  island  in  the  Indian  Sea, 
was  seized  by  his  conquerors,  and  made  their  chief. 
Their  captive  became  their  king.  After  years  of 
rule,  he  managed  to  escape.  When  he  once  more 
visited  his  former  realm,  he  found  that  the  savages 
had  carried  him  to  heaven,  and  worshipped  him  as  a 
God  greater  than  their  fancied  deities  :  he  had  revo- 
lutionized divinity,  and  was  himself  enthroned  as  a 
God.  Why  so  ?  In  intellectual  qualities,  in  relig- 
ious qualities,  he  was  superior  to  their  idea  of  God, 
and  so  they  worshipped  him.  Thus  loyal  is  human 
nature  to  its  great  men. 

Talk  of  Democracy !  —  we  are  all  looking  for  a 
master ;  a  man  manlier  than  we.  We  are  always 
looking  for  a  great  man  to  solve  the  difficulty  too 
hard  for  us,  to  break  the  rock  which  lies  in  our  way, 
—  to  represent  the  possibility  of  human  nature  as  an 

VOL.   I.  13 


146  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

ideal,  and  then  to  realize  that  ideal  in  his  life.  Little 
boys  in  the  country,  working  against  time,  with 
stints  to  do,  long  for  the  passing-by  of  some  tall 
brother,  who  in  a  few  minutes  shall  achieve  what 
the  smaller  boy  took  hours  to  do.  And  we  are  all 
of  us  but  little  boys,  looking  for  some  great  brother 
to  come  and  help  us  end  our  tasks. 

But  it  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  recognize  the  great- 
est kind  of  greatness.  A  Nootka- Sound  Indian 
would  not  see  much  in  Leibnitz,  Newton,  Socrates, 
or  Dante ;  and  if  a  great  man  were  to  come  as  much 
before  us  as  ^ve  are  before  the  Nootka- Sounders, 
what  should  we  say  of  him  ?  Why,  the  worst 
names  we  could  devise,  Blasphemer,  Hypocrite,  Infi- 
del, Atheist.  Perhaps  we  should  dig  up  the  old 
cross,  and  make  a  new  martyr  of  the  man  posterity 
will  worship  as  a  deity.  It  is  the  men  who  are  up 
that  see  the  rising  sun,  not  the  slviggards.  It  takes 
greatness  to  see  greatness,  and  know  it  at  the  first ; 
I  mean  to  see  greatness  of  the  highest  kind.  Bulk, 
anybody  can  see ;  bulk  of  body  or  mind.  The  lofti- 
est form  of  greatness  is  never  popular  in  its  time. 
Men  cannot  understand  or  receive  it.  Guinea  ne- 
groes would  think  a  juggler  a  greater  man  than 
Franklin.  What  would  be  thought  of  Martin 
Luther  at  Rome,  of  Washington  at  St.  Petersburgh, 
of  Fenelon  among  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  ?  Herod 
and  Pilate  were  popular  in  their  day,  —  men  of 
property  and  standing.     They  got  nominations  and 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  147 

honor  enough.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  got  no  nomina- 
tion, got  a  cross  between  two  thieves,  was  crowned 
with  thorns,  and,  when  he  died,  eleven  Galileans 
gathered  together  to  lament  their  Lord !  Any  man 
can  measure  a  walking-stick,  —  so  many  hands  long, 
and  so  many  nails  beside ;  but  it  takes  a  mountain- 
intellect  to  measure  the  Andes  and  Altai. 

Now  and  then,  God  creates  a  mighty  man,  who 
greatly  influences  mankind.  Sometimes  he  reaches 
far  on  into  other  ages.  Such  a  man,  if  he  be  of  the 
greatest,  will,  by  and  by,  unite  in  himself  the  four 
chief  forces  of  society,  —  business,  politics,  literature, 
and  the  church.  Himself  a  stronger  force  than  all  of 
these,  he  will  at  last  control  the  commercial,  political, 
literary,  and  ecclesiastical  action  of  mankind.  But 
just  as  he  is  greater  than  other  men,  in  the  highest 
mode  of  greatness,  will  he  at  first  be  opposed,  and 
hated  too.  The  tall  house  in  the  street  darkens  the 
grocer's  window  opposite,  and  he  must  strike  his 
light  sooner  than  before.  The  inferior  great  man 
does  not  understand  the  man  of  superior  modes  of 
eminence.  Sullenly  the  full  moon  at  morning  pales 
her  ineffectual  light  before  the  rising  day.  In  the 
Greek  fable,  jealous  Saturn  devours  the  new  gods 
whom  he  feared,  foreseeing  the  day  when  the  Olym- 
pian dynasty  would  turn  him  out  of  heaven.  To 
the  natural  man  the  excellence  of  the  spiritual  is 
only  foolishness.  What  do  you  suppose  the  best 
educated  Pharisees  in  Jerusalem  thought  of  Jesus  ? 


148  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

They  thought  him  an  infidel :  "  He  blasphemeth." 
They  called  him  crazy :  "  he  hath  a  devil."  They 
mocked  at  the  daily  beauty  of  his  holiness  :  he  had 
"  broken  the  sabbath."  They  reviled  at  his  philan- 
thropy :  it  was  "  eating  with  publicans  and  sinners." 

Human  nature  loves  to  reverence  great  men,  and 
often  honors  many  a  little  one  under  the  mistake 
that  he  is  great.  See  how  nations  honor  the  greatest 
great  men,  —  Moses,  Zoroaster,  Socrates,  Jesus,  — 
that  loftiest  of  men !  But  by  how  many  false  men 
have  we  been  deceived,  —  men  whose  light  leads  to 
bewilder,  and  dazzles  to  blind  I  If  a  preacher  is  a 
thousand  years  before  you  and  me,  we  cannot  under- 
stand him.  If  only  a  hundred  years  of  thought 
shall  separate  us,  there  is  a  great  gulf  between  the 
two,  whereover  neither  Dives  nor  Abraham,  nor  yet 
Moses  himself,  can  pass.  It  is  a  false  great  man 
often  who  gets  possession  of  the  pulpit,  with  his  les- 
son for  to-day,  which  is  no  lesson ;  and  a  false  great 
man  who  gets  a  throne,  with  his  lesson  for  to-day, 
which  is  also  no  lesson.  Men  great  in  little  things 
are  sure  of  their  pay.  It  is  all  ready,  subject  to  their 
order. 

A  little  man  is  often  mistaken  for  a  great  one. 
The  possession  of  office,  of  accidental  renown,  of 
imposing  qualities,  of  brilliant  eloquence,  often  daz- 
zles the  beholder  ;  and  he  reverences  a  show. 

How  much  a  great  man  of  the  highest  kind  can 
do  for  us,  and  how  easy !     It   is  not  harder  for  a 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  149 

cloud  to  thunder,  than  for  a  chestnut  in  a  farmer's 
fire  to  snap.  Dull  Mr.  Jingle  urges  along  his  restive, 
hardmouthed  donkey,  besmouched  with  mire,  and 
wealed  with  many  a  stripe,  amid  the  laughter  of  the 
boys ;  while,  by  his  proper  motion,  swanlike  Milton 
flies  before  the  faces  of  mankind,  which  are  new  lit 
with  admiration  at  the  poet's  rising  flight,  his  gar- 
lands and  singing  robes  about  him,  till  the  aspiring 
glory  transcends  the  sight,  yet  leaves  its  track  of 
beauty  trailed  across  the  sky. 

Intellect  and  conscience  are  conversant  with  ideas, 
—  with  absolute  Truth  and  absolute  Right,  as  the 
norm  of  conduct.  But,  with  most  men,  the  affec- 
tions are  developed  in  advance  of  the  intellect  and 
the  conscience ;  and  the  affections  want  a  person. 
In  his  actions,  a  man  of  great  intellect  embodies  a 
principle,  good  or  bad  ;  and,  by  the  affections,  men 
accept  the  great  intellectual  man,  bad  or  good,  and 
with  him  the  principle  he  has  got. 

As  the  affections  are  so  large  in  us,  how  delightful 
is  it  for  us  to  see  a  great  man,  honor  him,  love  him, 
reverence  him,  trust  him!  Crowds  of  men  come  to 
look  upon  a  hero's  face,  who  are  all  careless  of  his 
actions  and  heedless  of  his  thought ;  they  know  not 
his  what,  nor  his  whence,  nor  his  whither  ;  his  per- 
son passes  for  reason,  justice,  and  religion. 

They  say  that  women  have  the  most  of  this  affec- 
tion, and  so  are  most  attachable,  most  swayed  by 
persons,  —  least  by  ideas.     Woman's  mind  and  con- 

13* 


150  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

science,  and  her  soul,  they  say,  are  easily  crushed 
into  her  all-embracing  heart ;  and  truth,  justice,  and 
holiness  are  trodden  underfoot  by  her  affection,  rush- 
ing towards  its  object.  "What  folly  I"  say  men. 
But,  when  a  man  of  large  intellect  comes,  he  is  wont 
to  make  women  of  us  all,  and  take  us  by  the  heart. 
Each  great  intellectual  man,  if  let  alone,  will  have 
an  influence  in  proportion  to  his  strength  of  mind 
and  will,  —  the  good  great  man,  the  bad  great  man ; 
for  as  each  particle  of  matter  has  an  attractive  force, 
which  affects  all  other  matter,  so  each  particle  of 
mind  has  an  attractive  force,  which  draws  all  other 
mind. 

How  pleasant  it  is  to  love  and  reverence  I  To 
idle  men  how  much  more  delightful  is  it  than  to 
criticize  a  man,  take  him  to  pieces,  weighing  each 
part,  and  considering  every  service  done  or  promised, 
and  then  decide  I  Men  are  continvially  led  astray 
by  misplaced  reverence.  Shall  we  be  governed  by 
the  mere  instinct  of  veneration,  uncovering  to  every 
man  who  demands  our  obeisance  ?  Man  is  to  rule 
himself,  and  not  be  overmastered  by  any  instinct 
subordinating  the  whole  to  a  special  part.  We 
ought  to  know  if  what  we  follow  be  real  greatness 
or  seeming  greatness;  and  of  the  real  greatness,  of 
what  kind  it  is,  —  eminent  cunning,  eminent  intel- 
lect, or  eminence  of  religion.  For  men  ought  not  to 
gravitate  passively,  drawn  by  the  bulk  of  bigness, 
but  consciously  and  freely  to  follow  eminent  wisdom, 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  151 

justice,  love,  and  faith  in  God.  Hence  it  becomes 
exceedingly  important  to  study  the  character  of  all 
eminent  men ;  for  they  represent  great  social  forces 
for  good  or  ill. 

It  is  true,  great  men  ought  to  be  tried  by  their 
peers.  But  "  a  cat  may  look  upon  a  king,"  and,  if 
she  is  to  enter  his  service,  will  do  well  to  look  before 
she  leaps.  It  is  dastardly  in  a  democrat  to  take  a 
master  with  less  scrutiny  than  he  would  buy  an  ox. 

Merchants  watch  the  markets :  they  know  w4iat 
ship  brings  corn,  what  hemp,  what  coal ;  how  much 
cotton  there  is  at  New  York  or  New  Orleans ;  how 
much  gold  in  the  banks.  They  learn  these  things, 
because  they  live  by  the  market,  and  seek  to  get 
money  by  then-  trade.  Politicians  watch  the  turn  of 
the  people  and  the  coming  vote,  because  they  live 
by  the  ballot-box,  and  wish  to  get  honor  and  office 
by  their  skill.  So  a  minister,  who  would  guide  men 
to  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  piety,  to  human  wel- 
fare, —  he  must  watch  the  great  men,  and  know 
what  quantity  of  truth,  of  justice,  of  love,  and  of 
faith  there  is  in  Calhoun,  Webster,  Clay ;  because 
he  is  to  live  by  the  word  of  God,  and  only  asks, 
"  Thy  kingdom  come  I " 

What  a  great  power  is  a  man  of  large  intellect! 
Aristotle  rode  on  the  neck  of  science  for  two  thou- 
sand years,  till  Bacon,  charging  down  from  the  vant- 
age-ground of  twenty  centuries,  with  giant  spear 
unhorsed  the  Stagyrite,  and  mounted  there  himself ; 


152  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

himself  in  turn  to  be  unhorsed.  What  a  profound 
influence  had  Frederick  in  Germany  for  half  a  cen- 
tury I  What  an  influence  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Wel- 
lington have  had  in  England  for  the  last  twenty  or 
thirty  years !  —  Napoleon  in  Europe  for  the  last  fifty 
years !  Jefferson  yet  leads  the  democracy  of  the 
United  States  ;  the  cold  hand  of  Hamilton  still  con- 
solidates the  several  States.  Dead  men  of  great  in- 
tellect speak  from  the  pulpit.     Law  is  of  mortmain. 

In  America  it  is  above  all  things  necessary  to 
study  the  men  of  eminent  mind,  even  the  men  of 
eminent  station  ;  for  their  power  is  greater  here  than 
elsewhere  in  Christendom.  Money  is  our  only  ma- 
terial, greatness  our  only  personal  nobility.  In  Eng- 
land, the  influence  of  powerful  men  is  checked  by 
the  great  families,  the  great  classes,  with  their  ances- 
tral privileges  consolidated  into  institutions,  and  the 
hereditary  crown.  Here  we  have  no  such  families ; 
historical  men  are  not  from  or  for  such ;  seldom  had 
historic  fathers ;  seldom  leave  historic  sons. 

Tempns  ferax  homini/m,  edax  homimtm. 

Fruitful  of  men  is  time  ;  voracious  also  of  men. 

Even  while  the  individual  family  continues  rich, 
political  unity  does  not  remain  in  its  members,  if 
numerous,  more  than  a  single  generation.  Nay,  it 
is  only  in  families  of  remarkable  stupidity  that  it 
lasts  a  single  age. 

In  this  country  the  swift  decay  of  powerful  families 
is  a  remarkable  fact.      Nature  produces  only   indi- 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  153 

viduals,  not  classes.  It  is  a  wonder  how  many 
famous  Americans  leave  no  children  at  all.  Han- 
cock, and  Samuel  Adams,  Washington,  Madison, 
Jackson  —  each  was  a  childless  flower  that  broke  off 
the  top  of  the  family  tree,  which  after  them  dwindled 
down,  and  at  length  died  out.  It  has  been  so  with 
EurojDean  stocks  of  eminent  stature.  Bacon,  Shak- 
speare,  Leibnitz,  Newton,  Descartes,  and  Kant  died 
and  left  no  sign.  With  strange  self-complaisance 
said  the  first  of  these,  "  Great  benefactors  have  been 
childless  men."  Here  and  there  an  American  family 
continues  to  bear  famous  fruit,  generation  after  gen- 
eration. A  single  New  England  tree,  rooted  far  off 
in  the  Marches  of  Wales,  is  yet  green  with  life, 
though  it  has  twice  blossomed  with  Presidents.  But 
in  general,  if  the  great  American  leave  sons,  the 
wonder  is  what  becomes  of  them, —  so  little,  they  are 
lost, —  a  single  needle  from  the  American  pine,  to 
strew  the  forest  floor  amid  the  other  litter  of  the 
woods. 

No  great  families  here  hold  great  men  in  check. 
There  is  no  permanently  powerful  class.  The  me- 
chanic is  father  of  the  merchant,  who  will  again  be 
the  grandsire  of  mechanics.  In  thirty  years,  half  the 
wealth  of  Boston  will  be  in  the  hands  of  men  now 
poor ;  and,  where  power  of  money  is  of  yesterday,  it 
is  no  great  check  to  any  man  of  large  intellect,  in- 
dustry, and  will.  Here  is  no  hereditary  office.  So 
the  personal  power  of  a  great  mind,  for  good  or  evil, 


154  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

is  free  from  that  threefold  check  it  meets  in  other 
lands,  and  becomes  of  immense  importance. 

Our  nation  is  a  great  committee  of  the  whole ;  our 
State  is  a  provisional  government,  riches  our  only 
heritable  good,  greatness  our  only  personal  nobility ; 
office  is  elective.  To  the  ambition  of  a  great  bad 
man,  or  the  philanthropy  of  a  great  good  man,  there 
is  no  check  but  the  power  of  money  or  numbers  ;  no 
check  from  great  families,  great  classes,  or  hereditary 
privileges.  If  our  man  of  large  intellect  runs  up  hill, 
there  is  nothing  to  check  him  but  the  inertia  of  man- 
kind ;  if  he  runs  down  hill,  that  also  is  on  his  side. 

With  us  the  great  mind  is  amenable  to  no  conven- 
tional standard  measure,  as  in  England  or  Europe, — 
only  to  public  opinion.  And  that  public  opinion  is 
controlled  by  money  and  numbers ;  for  these  are  the 
two  factors  of  the  American  product,  the  multiplier 
and  the  multiplicand,  —  millions  of  money,  millions 
of  men. 

A  great  mind  is  like  an  elephant  in  the  line  of  an- 
cient battle,  —  the  best  ally  if  you  can  keep  him  in 
the  ranks,  fronting  the  right  way  ;  but,  if  he  turn 
about,  he  is  the  fatalest  foe,  and  treads  his  master 
underneath  his  feet.  Great  minds  have  a  trick  of 
turning  round. 

Taking  all  these  things  into  consideration,  you  see 
how  important  it  is  to  scrutinize  all  the  great  men,  — 
to  know  their  quantity  and  quality,  —  before  we 
allow   them   to   take   our  heart.     To  do  this  is  to 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  155 

measure  one  of  the  most  powerful  popular  forces  for 
guiding  the  present  and  shaping  the  future.  Every 
office  is  to  be  filled  by  the  people's  vote,  —  that  of 
public  president  and  private  cook.  Franklin  intro- 
duced new  philanthrophy  to  the  law  of  nations. 
Washington  changed  men's  ideas  of  political  great- 
ness. If  Napoleon  the  Present  goes  unwhipped  of 
Justice,  he  will  change  those  ideas  again  ;  not  for  the 
world,  but  for  the  saloons  of  Paris,  for  its  journals 
and  its  mob. 

How  different  are  conspicuous  men  to  different 
eyes!  The  city  corporation  of  Toulouse  has  just 
addressed  this  petition  to  Napoleon :  — 

"MoNSEiGNiEUK,  —  The  government  of  the  world  by  Provi- 
dence is  the  most  perfect.  France  and  Europe  style  you  the 
elect  of  God  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  designs.  It  belongs 
to  no  Constitution  whatever  to  assign  a  term  for  the  divine  mission 
■with  which  you  are  intrusted.  Inspire  yourself  with  this  thought, 
—  to  restore  to  the  countrj'  those  tutelar  institutions,  which  form 
the  stability  of , power  and  the  dignity  of  nations." 

That  is  a  prayer  addressed  to  the  Prince  President 
of  France,  whose  private  vices  are  equalled  only  by 
his  public  sins.  How  different  he  looks  to  different 
men  I  To  me  he  is  Napoleon  the  Little  ;  to  the 
Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  Toulouse,  he  is  the  Elect 
of  God,  with  irresponsible  power  to  rule  as  long  and 
as  badly  as  likes  him  best.  Well  said  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  "  Spite  of  the  ancients,  there  is  not  a  piece 


156  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

of  wood  in  the  world  out  of  which  a  Mercury  may 
not  be  made." 

It  is  this  importance  of  great  men  which  has  led 
me  to  speak  of  them  so  often;  not  only  of  men 
great  by  nature,  but  great  by  position  on  money  or 
office,  or  by  reputation ;  men  substantially  great,  and 
men  great  by  accident.  Hence  I  spoke  of  Dr.  Chan- 
ning,  whose  word  weht  like  morning  over  the  conti- 
nents. Hence  I  spoke  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  and 
did  not  fear  to  point  out  every  error  I  thought  I  dis- 
covered in  the  great  man's  track,  which  ended  so 
proudly  in  the  right;  and  I  did  homage  to  all  the 
excellence  I  found,  though  it  was  the  most  unpopu- 
lar excellence.  Hence  I  spoke  of  General  Taylor ; 
yes,  even  of  General  Harrison,  a  very  ordinary  man, 
but  available,  and  accidentally  in  a  great  station. 

You  see  why  this  ought  to  be  done.  We  are  a 
young  nation ;  a  great  man  easily  gives  us  the  im- 
pression of  his  hand ;  we  shall  harden  in  the  fire  of 
centuries,  and  keep  the  mark.  Stamp  a  letter  on 
Chaldean  clay,  and  how  very  frail  it  seems !  but 
burn  that  clay  in  the  fire,  —  and,  though  Nineveh 
shall  perish,  and  Babylon  become  a  heap  of  ruins, 
that  brick  keeps  the  arrow-headed  letter  to  this  day. 
As  with  bricks,  so  with  nations. 

Ere  long,  these  three  and  twenty  millions  will  be- 
come a  hundred  millions  ;  then  perhaps  a  thousand 
millions,  spread  over  all  the  continent,  from  the 
Arctic  to  the  Antarctic  Sea.     It  is  a  good  thing  to 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  157 

start  with  men  of  great  religion  for  our  guides.  The 
difference  between  a  Moses  and  a  Maximian  will  be 
felt  by  many  millions  of  men,  and  for  many  an  age, 
after  death  has  effaced  both  from  the  earth.  The 
dead  hand  of  Moses  yet  circumcises  every  Hebrew 
boy ;  that  of  mediaeval  doctors  of  divinity  still 
clutches  the  clergyman  by  the  throat ;  the  dead 
barons  of  Runnymede  even  now  keep  watch,  and 
vindicate  for  us  all  a  trial  by  the  law  of  the  land, 
administered  by  our  peers. 

A  man  of  eminent  abilities  may  do  one  of  two 
things  in  influencing  men. 

I.  Either  he  may  extend  himself  at  right  angles 
with  the  axis  of  the  human  march,  lateralize  himself, 
spreading  widely,  and  have  a  great  power  in  his 
own  age,  putting  his  opinion  into  men's  heads,  his 
will  into  their  action,  and  yet  never  reach  far  onward 
into  the  future.  In  America,  he  will  gain  power  in 
his  time,  by  having  the  common  sentiments  and 
ideas,  and  an  extraordinary  power  to  express  and 
show  their  value  ;  great  power  of  comprehension,  of 
statement,  and  of  will.  Such  a  man  differs  from 
others  in  quantity,  not  quality.  Where  all  men 
have  considerable,  he  has  a  great  deal.  His  power 
may  be  represented  by  two  parallel  lines,  the  one  be- 
ginning where  his  influence  begins,  the  other  where 
his  influence  ends.  His  power  will  be  measured  by 
the  length  of  the  lines  laterally,  and  the  distance 
betwixt  the  parallels.     That  is  one  thing. 

VOL.    I.  14 


158  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Or  a  great  man  may  extend  himself  forward,  in 
the  line  of  the  human  march,  himself  a  prolongation 
of  the  axis  of  mankind  :  not  reaching  far  sideways 
in  his  own  time,  he  reaches  forward  immensely,  his 
influence  widening  as  it  goes.  He  will  do  this  by 
superiority  in  sentiments,  ideas,  and  actions ;  by 
eminence  of  justice  and  of  affection  ;  by  eminence 
of  religion :  he  will  differ  in  quality  as  well  as 
quantity,  and  have  much  where  the  crowd  has 
nothing  at  all.  His  power  also  may  be  represented 
by  two  lines,  both  beginning  at  his  birth,  pointing 
forwards,  diverging  from  a  point,  reaching  far  into 
the  future,  widening  as  they  extend,  comprehending 
time  by  then"  stretch,  and  space  by  their  spread. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  of  this  class :  he  spread 
laterally  in  his  lifetime,  and  took  in  twelve  Galilean 
peasants  and  a  few  obscure  women  ;  now  his  diverg- 
ing lines  reach  over  two  thousand  years  in  their 
stretch,  and  contain  two  hundred  and  sixty  millions 
of  men  within  their  spread. 

So  much,  my  friends,  and  so  long,  as  preface  to 
this  estimate  of  a  great  man. 


Daniel  Webster  was  a  man  of  eminent  abili- 
ties :  for  many  years  the  favored  son  of  New  Eng- 
land. He  was  seventy  years  old  ;  nearly  forty  years 
in  the  councils  of  the  nation ;  held  high  office  in 
times  of  peril  and  doubt ;  had  a  commanding  elo- 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  159 

quence  —  there  were  two  million  readers  for  every 
speech  he  spoke ;  and  for  the  last  two  years  he  has 
had  a  vast  influence  on  the  opinion  of  the  North. 
He  has  done  service ;  spoken  noble  words  that  will 
endure  so  long  as  English  lasts.  He  has  largely 
held  the  jiation's  eye.  His  public  office  made  his 
personal  character  conspicuous.  Great  men  have  no 
privacy ;  their  bed  and  their  board  are  both  spread 
in  front  of  the  sun,  and  their  private  character  is  a 
public  force.  Let  us  see  what  he  did,  and  what  he 
was ;  what  is  the  result  for  the  present,  what  for  the 
future. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  at  Salisbury,  N.  H.,  on 
the  borders  of  civilization,  on  the  18th  of  January, 
1782.  He  was  the  son  of  Capt.  Ebenezer  and  Abi- 
gail (Eastman)  Webster. 

The  mother  of  Capt.  Webster  was  a  Miss  Bach- 
elder,  of  Hampton,  where  Thomas  Webster,  the 
American  founder  of  the  family,  settled  in  1636. 
She  was  descended  from  the  Rev.  Stephen  Bachiller, 
formerly  of  Lynn  in  Massachusetts,  a  noted  man  in 
his  time,  unjustly,  or  otherwise,  driven  out  of  the 
colony  by  the  Puritans.  Ebenezer  Webster,  in  his 
early  days,  lived  as  "  boy "  in  the  service  of  Col. 
Ebenezer  Stevens,  of  Kingston,  from  whom  he  re- 
ceived a  "  lot  of  land "  in  Stevenstown,  now  Salis- 
bury. In  1764,  Mr.  Webster  built  himself  a  log- 
cabin  on  the  premises,  and  lighted  his  fire.     His  land 


160  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

"  lapped  on  "  to  the  wilderness  ;  no  New  Englander 
living  so  near  the  North  Star,  it  is  said.  The  family- 
was  any  thing  but  rich,  living  first  in  a  log-cabin, 
then  in  a  frame-house,  and  some  time  keeping 
tavern. 

The  father  was  a  soldier  in  the  French  war,  and 
in  the  Revolution  ;  a  great,  brave,  big,  brawny  man  ; 
"  high-breasted  and  broad-shouldered  ; "  "  with  heavy- 
eyebrows,"  and  "  a  heart  which  he  seemed  to  have 
borrowed  from  a  lion ;  "  '  a  dark  man,"  so  black 
that  "  you  could  not  tell  when  his  face  was  covered 
with  gunpowder ; "  six  feet  high,  and  both  in  look 
and  manners  "  uncommon  rough."  He  was  a  shifty- 
man  of  many  functions,  —  a  farmer,  a  saw-miller, 
"  something  of  a  blacksmith,"  a  captain  in  the  early- 
part  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  a  colonel  of  militia, 
representative  and  senator  in  the  New  Hampshire 
legislature,  and  finally  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas;  yet  "he  never  saw  the  inside  of  a 
school-house."  In  his  early  married  life,  food  some- 
times failed  on  the  rough  farm  :  then  the  stout  man 
and  his  neighbors  took  to  the  woods,  and  brought 
home  many  a  fat  buck  in  their  day. 

The  mother,  one  of  the  "  black  Eastmans,"  was  a 
quite  superior  woman.  It  is  often  so.  When  virtue 
leaps  high  in  the  public  fountain,  you  seek  for  the 
lofty  spring  of  nobleness,  and  find  it  far  off  in  the 
dear  breast  of  some  mother,  who  melted  the  snows 
of  wdnter,  and  condensed   the   summer's  dew  into 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  161 

fair,  sweet  humanity,  which  now  gladdens  the  face 
of  man  in  all  the  city  streets.  Bulk  is  bearded  and 
masculine ;  niceness  is  of  woman's  gendering. 

Daniel  Webster  was  fortunate  in  the  outward  cir- 
cumstances of  his  birth  and  breeding.  He  came 
from  that  class  in  society  whence  almost  all  the  great 
men  of  America  have  come, — the  two  Adamses, 
Washington,  Hancock,  Jefferson,  Jackson,  Clay,  and 
almost  every  living  notable  of  our  time.  New 
Hampshire  herself  has  furnished  a  large  number  of 
self-reliant  and  able-headed  men,  who  have  fought 
their  way  in  the  world  with  their  own  fist,  and  won 
eminent  stations  at  the  last.  The  little,  rough  State 
breeds  professors  and  senators,  merchants  and  hardy 
lawyers,  in  singular  profusion.  Our  Hercules  was 
also  cradled  on  the  ground.  When  he  visited  the 
West,  a  few  years  ago,  an  emigrant  from  New 
Hampshire  inet  him  in  Ohio,  recognized  him,  and 
asked,  "  Is  this  the  son  of  Capt.  W^ebster  ?  "  "  It  is, 
indeed,"  said  the  great  man.  "  What !  "  said  he,  "  is 
this  the  little  black  Dan  that  used  to  water  the 
horses  ?  "  And  the  great  Daniel  Webster  said,  "  It 
is  the  little  black  Dan  that  used  to  water  the  horses." 
He  was  proud  of  his  history.  If  a  man  finds  the 
way  alone,  should  he  not  be  proud  of  having  found 
the  way,  and  got  out  of  the  woods  ? 

He  had  small  opportunities  for  academical  educa- 
tion.     The    schoolmaster   was    "  abroad "    in    New 
Hampshire  ;  and  was  seldom  at  home  in  Salisbury. 
14* 


162  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Only  two  or  three  months  in  the  year  was  there  a 
school ;  often  only  a  movable  school,  that  ark  of  the 
Lord,  shifting  from  place  to  place.  Sometimes  it 
was  two  or  three  miles  from  Capt.  Webster's. 
Once  it  was  stationary  in  a  log-house.  Thither  went 
Daniel  Webster,  "  carrying  his  dinner  in  a  tin  pail," 
a  brave,  bright  boy.  "The  child  is  father  of  the 
man."  The  common-school  of  America  is  the  cradle 
of  all  her  greatness.  How  many  Presidents  has  she 
therein  rocked  to  vigorous  manhood !  But  Mr. 
Webster's  school-time  was  much  interrupted :  there 
were  "chores  to  be  done"  at  home, —  the  saw-mill 
to  be  tended  in  winter ;  in  summer,  Daniel  "  must 
ride  horse  to  plough ;  "  and  in  planting-time,  and 
hay-time,  and  harvest,  have  many  a  day  stolen  from 
his  scanty  seed-time  of  learning.  In  his  father's 
tavern-barn,  the  future  Secretary  gave  a  rough  curry- 
ing, "  after  the  fashion  of  the  times,"  to  the  sorry 
horse  of  many  a  traveller,  and  in  the  yard  of  the  inn 
yoked  the  oxen  of  many  a  New  Hampshire  teamster. 

"  Cast  the  bantling  on  the  rocks." 

When   fourteen    years    old,    he   went   to   Phillips 
Academy  *  at  Exeter  for  a  few  months,  riding  thither 


*  At  the  commemoration  of  Mr.  Abbott's  fiftieth  anniversary  as 
Preceptor  of  Phillips  Academy,  a  time  when  "  English  was  of  no 
more  account  at  Exeter  than  silver  at  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  163 

on  the  same  horse  with  his  father;  then  to  study 
with  Rev.  Mr.  Wood  at  Boscawen,  paying  a  "  dollar 
a  week"  for  the  food  of  the  body  and  the  food  of  the 
mind.  In  the  warm  weather,  "  Daniel  went  bare- 
foot, and  wore  tow  trousers  and  a  tow  shirt,  his 
only  garments  at  that  season,"  spvm,  woven,  and 
made  up  by  his  diligent  mother.  "  He  helped  do 
the  things"  about  Mr.  Wood's  barn  and  woodpile, 
and  so  diminished  the  pecuniary  burden  of  his 
father.  But  Mr.  Wood  had  small  Latin  and  less 
Greek,  and  only  taught  what  he  knew.  Daniel  was 
an  ambitious  boy,  and  apt  to  learn.  Men  wonder 
that  some  men  can  do  so  much  with  so  little  out- 
ward furniture.  The  wonder  is  the  other  way.  He 
was  more  college  than  the  college  itself,  and  had  a 
university  in  his  head.  It  takes  time,  and  the  sweat 
of  oxen,  and  the  shouting  of  drivers,  goading  and 
whipping,  to  get  a  cart-load  of  cider  to  the  top  of 
Mount  Washington  ;  but  the  eagle  flies  there  on  his 
own  wide  wings,  and  asks  no  help.  Daniel  Webster 
had  little  academic  furniture  to  help  him.  He  had 
the  mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  and  his  own 
great  mountain  of  a  head.  Was  that  a  bad  outfit  ? 
No  millionaire  can  buy  it  for  a  booby-son. 


King  Solomon,"  Mr.  Abbott  sat  between  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr. 
Everett,  both  of  them  his  former  pupils.  Mr.  John  P.  Hale,  in  his 
neat  speech,  said,  "  If  you  had  done  nothing  else  but  instruct  these 
two,  you  might  say,  Exp:gi  monumentum  ^re  perennius." 


164  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

There  was  a  British  sailor,  with  a  wife  but  no 
child,  an  old  "  man-of-war's-man "  living  hard  by 
Capt.  Webster's,  fond  of  fishing  and  hunting,  of 
hearing  the  newspapers  read,  and  of  telling  his 
stories  to  all  comers.  He  had  considerable  influ- 
ence on  the  young  boy,  and  never  wore  out  of  his 
memory. 

There  was  a  small  social  library  at  Salisbury, 
whence  a  bright  boy  could  easily  draw  the  water  of 
life  for  his  intellect ;  at  home  was  the  Farmers'  Al- 
manac, with  its  riddles  and  "  poetry,"  Watts's 
Hymns  and  the  Bible,  the  inseparable  companion  of 
the  New  England  man.  Daniel  was  fond  of  poetry, 
and,  before  he  was  ten  years  old,  knew  dear  old  Isaac 
Watts  all  by  heart.  He  thought  all  books  were  to 
be  got  by  heart.  I  said  he  loved  to  learn.  One  day 
his  father  said  to  him,  "  I  shdll  send  you  to  college, 
Daniel;"  and  Daniel  laid  his  head  on  his  father's 
shoulder,  and  wept  right  out.  In  reading  and  spell- 
ing he  surpassed  his  teacher ;  but  his  hard  hands  did 
not  take  kindly  to  writing,  and  the  schoolmaster  told 
him  his  "  fingers  were  destined  to  the  plough-tail." 

He  was  not  a  strong  boy,  was  "  a  crying  baby  " 
that  worried  his  mother ;  but  a  neighbor  "  prophe- 
sied," "  You  will  take  great  comfort  in  him  one 
day !  "  As  he  grew  up,  he  was  "  the  slimmest  of 
the  family,"  a  farmer's  youngest  boy,  and  "  not  good 
for  much."  He  did  not  love  work.  It  was  these 
peculiarities  which  decided  Capt.  Webster  to  send 
Daniel  to  college. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  165 

The  time  came  for  him  to  go  to  college.  His 
father  once  carried  him  to  Dartmouth  in  a  wagon. 
On  the  way  thither,  they  passed  a  spot  which  Capt. 
Webster  remembered  right  well.  "  Once  when  you 
were  a  little  baby,"  said  he,  "  in  the  winter  we  were 
out  of  provisions,  I  w^ent  into  the  woods  with  the 
gun  to  find  something  to  eat.  In  that  spot  yonder, 
then  all  covered  with  woods,  I  found  a  herd  of 
deer.  The  snow  was  very  deep,  and  they  had  made 
themselves  a  pen.)  and  were  crowded  together  in 
great  numbers.  As  they  could  not  get  out,  I  took 
my  choice,  and  picked  out  a  fine,  fat  stag.  I  walked 
round  and  looked  at  him,  with  my  knife  in  my  hand. 
As  I  looked  the  noble  fellow  in  the  face,  the  great 
tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks,  and  I  could  not  touch 
him.  But  I  thought  of  you,  Daniel,  and  your 
mother,  and  the  rest  of  the  little  ones,  and  carried 
home  the  deer." 

He  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  "  entered  college : " 
he  only  "  broke  in,"  so  slenderly  was  he  furnished 
with  elementary  knowledge.  This  deficiency  of  ele- 
mentary instruction  in  the  classic  tongues  and  in 
mathematics  was  a  sad  misfortune  in  his  later  life 
which  he  never  outgrew. 

At  pollege,  like  so  many  other  New  Hampshire 
boys,  he  "  paid  his  own  way,"  keeping  school  in  the 
vacation.  One  year  he  paid  his  board  by  "  doing 
the  literature  "  for  a  weekly  newspaper.  He  gradu- 
ated at  Dartmouth  in  his  twentieth  year,  largely  dis- 


166  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

tinguished,  for  power  as  a  writer  and  speaker,  though 
not  much  honored  by  the  college  authorities ;  so  he 
scorned  his  degree ;  and,  when  the  faculty  gave  him 
their  diploma,  he  tore  it  to  pieces  in  the  college-yard, 
in  presence  of  some  of  his  mates,  it  is  said,  and  trod 
it  underfoot. 

When  he  graduated,  he  was  apparently  of  a  feeble 
constitution,  "  long,  slender,  pale,  and  all  eyes,"  with 
"  teeth  as  white  as  a  hound's ; "  thick,  black  hair 
clustered  about  his  ample  forehead.  At  first  he 
designed  to  study  theology,  but  his  father's  better 
judgment  overruled  the  thought. 

After  graduating,  he  continued  to  fight  for  his 
education,  studying  law  with  one  hand,  keeping 
school  with  the  other,  and  yet  finding  a  third  hand 
—  this  Yankee  Briareus  —  to  serve  as  Register  of 
Deeds.  This  he  did  at  Fryeburg  in  Maine,  borrow- 
ing a  copy  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  which  he 
was  too  poor  to  buy.  In  a  long  winter  evening,  by 
copying  two  deeds,  he  could  earn  fifty  cents.  He 
used  his  money,  thus  severely  earned,  to  help  his 
older  brother,  Ezekiel,  "  Black  Zeke,"  as  he  was 
called,  to  college.  Both  were  "  heinously  unpro- 
vided." 

Then  he  came  to  Boston,  with  no  letters  of  intro- 
duction, raw,  awkward,  and  shabby  in  his  dress,  with 
cowhide  shoes,  blue  yarn  stockings  "coarsely  ribbed," 
his  rough  trousers  ceasing  a  long  distance  above  his 
feet.     He  sought  admittance  as  a  clerk  to  more  than 


DANIEL   WEBSTEK.  167 

one  office  before  he  found  a  place  ;  an  eminent  law- 
yer, rudely  turning  him  off,  "  would  not  have  such  a 
fellow  in  the  office !  "  Mr.  Gore,  a  man  of  large 
reputation,  took  in  the  unprotected  youth,  who 
"  came  to  work,  not  to  play."  Here  he  struggled 
with  poverty  and  the  law.  Ezekiel,  not  yet  gradu- 
ated, came  also  and  took  a  school  in  Short  street. 
Daniel  helped  his  brother  in  the  school.  Edward 
Everett  was  one  of  the  pupils,  a  "  marvellous  boy," 
with  no  equal,  it  was  thought,  in  all  New  England, 
making  the  promise  scholarly  he  has  since  fulfilled. 

Mr.  Webster  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1805,  with 
a  prophecy  of  eminence  from  Mr.  Gore,  —  a  proph- 
ecy which  might  easily  be  made :  such  a  head  was 
its  own  fortune-teller.  His  legal  studies  over,  re- 
fusing a  lucrative  office,  he  settled  down  as  a  lawyer 
at  Boscawen,  in  New  Hampshire.  Thence  went  to 
Portsmouth  in  1807,  a  lawyer  of  large  talents,  get- 
ting rapidly  into  practice  ;  "  known  all  over  the  State 
of  New  Hampshire,"  known  also  in  Massachusetts. 
He  attended  to  literature,  wrote  papers  in  the 
Monthly  Anthology,  a  periodical  published  in  the 
"  Athens  of  America  "  —  so  Boston  was  then  called. 
He  printed  a  rhymed  version  of  some  of  the  odes  of 
Horace,  and  wrote  largely  for  the  "  Portsmouth 
Oracle." 

In  1808  he  married  Miss  Grace  Fletcher,  an  at- 
tractive and  beautiful  woman,  one  year  older  than 
himself,  the  daughter  of  the  worthy  minister  of  Hop- 


168  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

kinton,  N.  H.  By  this  marriage  he  was  the  father 
of  tw-o  daughters  and  two  sons.  But,  alas  for  him  ! 
this  amiable  and  beloved  woman  ceased  to  be  mortal 
in  1828. 

In  1812,  when  thirty  years  of  age,  he  was  elected 
to  Congress,  —  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  In 
1814  his  house  was  burned,  —  a  great  loss  to  the 
young  man,  never  thrifty,  and  then  struggling  for  an 
estate.  He  determined  to  quit  New  Hampshire,  and 
seek  a  place  in  some  more  congenial  spot.  New 
Hampshire  breeds  great  lawyers,  but  not  great  for- 
tunes. He  hesitated  for  a  while  between  Boston 
and  Albany.  "  He  doubted ; "  so  he  wi'ote  to  a 
friend,  if  he  "  could  make  a  living  in  Boston."  But 
he  concluded  to  try ;  and  in  1816  he  removed  to 
Boston,  in  the  State  which  had  required  his  ances- 
tor, Rev.  Stephen  Bachiller,  "to  forbare  exercising 
his  gifts  as  a  pastor  or  teacher  publiquely  in  the 
Pattent,"  "for  his  contempt  of  authority,  and  till 
some  scandles  be  removed."  * 

In  1820,  then  thirty-eight  years  old,  he  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Massachusetts  Convention,  and  is  one  of 
the  leading  members  there ;  provoking  the  jealousy, 
but  at  the  same  time  distancing  the  rivalry,  of  young 
men  Boston  born  and  Cambridge  bred.  His  light, 
taken  from  under  the   New  Hampshii-e  bushel  at 


*  MS.  Kecords  of  Mass.  General  Court,  Oct.  3,  1632. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  169 

Portsmouth,  could  not  be  hid  in  Boston.  It  gives 
light  to  all  that  enter  the  house.  In  1822  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  from  Boston ;  in  1827,  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  In  1841  he  was  Sec- 
retary of  State ;  again  a  private  citizen  in  1843 ;  in 
the  Senate  in  1845,  and  Secretary  of  State  in  1850, 
where  he  continued,  until,  "  on  the  24th 'of  October, 
1852,  all  that  was  mortal  of  Daniel  Webster  was  no 
more  I " 

He  was  ten  days  in  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  a  few  weeks  in  her  Convention ;,  eight 
years  Representative  in  Congress ;  nineteen.  Sen- 
ator ;  five.  Secretary  of  State.  Such  is  a  condensed 
map  of  his  outward  history. 


Look  next  at  the  Headlands  of  his  life.  Here  1 
shall  speak  of  his  deeds  arid  words  as  a  citizen  and 
public  officer. 

He  was  a  great  lawyer,  engaged  in  many  of  the 
most  important  cases  during  the  last  forty  years ; 
but,  in  the  briefness  of  a  sermon,  I  must  pass  by  his 
labors  in  the  law. 

I  know  that  much  of  his  present  reputation  de- 
pends on  his  achievements  as  a  lawyer;  as  an  "ex- 
pounder of  the  Constitution."  Unfortunately,  it  is 
not  possible  for  me  to  say  how  much  credit  belongs 
to  Mr.  Webster  for  his  constitutional  arguments,  and 
how  much  to  the  late  Judge  Story.     The  publication 

VOL.  I.  15 


170  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

of  the  correspondence  between  these  gentlemen  will 
perhaps  help  settle  the  matter;  but  still  much  exact 
legal  information  was  often  given  by  w^ord  of  mouth, 
during  personal  interviews,  and  that  must  for  ever 
remain  hidden  from  all  but  him  who  gave  and  him 
who  took.  However,  from  1816  to  1842,  IVIi-.  AVeb- 
ster  was  in  the  habit  of  drawing  from  that  deep  and 
copious  well  of  legal  knowledge,  whenever  his  own 
bucket  was  dry.  I\Ii-.  Justice  Story  was  the  Jupiter 
Pluvius  from  whom  Mr.  Webster  often  sought  to 
elicit  peculiar  thunder  for  his  speeches,  and  private 
rain  for  his  own  public  tanks  of  law.  The  states- 
man got  the  lawyer  to  draft  bills,  to  make  sugges- 
tions, to  furnish  facts,  precedents,  law,  and  ideas. 
He  went  on  this  aquilician  business,  asking  aid,  now 
in  a  "  bankruptcy  bill,"  in  1816  and  1825 ;  then  in 
questions  of  law  of  nations,  in  1827 ;  next  in  mat- 
ters of  criminal  law  in  1830 ;  then  of  constitutional 
law  in  1832 ;  then  in  relation  to  the  North-eastern 
boundary  in  1838 ;  in  matters  of  international  law 
again,  in  his  negotiations  with  Lord  Ashburton,  in 
1842.  "  You  can  do  more  for  me  than  all  the  rest 
of  the  world,"  wrote  the  Secretary  of  State,  April 
9th,  1842,  "because  you  can  give  me  the  lights  I 
most  want;  and,  if  you  furnish  them,  I  shall  be  con- 
fident that  they  will  be  true  lights.  I  shall  trouble 
you  greatly  the  next  three  months."  And  again, 
July  16th,  1842,  he  writes,  ^^Nobody  hut  yourself  can 
do  this.^^     But,  alas !  in  his  later  years  the  beneficiary 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  171 

sought  to  conceal  the  source  of  his  supplies.  Jupiter 
Pluvius  had  himself  been  summoned  before  the  court 
of  the  Higher  Law. 

Much  of  Mr.  Webster's  fame  as  a  Constitutional 
lawyer  rests  on  his  celebrated  argument  in  the  Dart- 
mouth College  case.  But  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
facts,  the  law,  the  precedents,  the  ideas,  and  the  con- 
clusions of  that  argument,  had  almost  all  of  them 
been  presented  by  Messrs.  Mason  and  Smith  in  the 
previous  trial  of  the  case.* 

Let  me  speak  of  the  public  acts  of  Mr.  Webster  in 
his  capacity  as  a  private  citizen.  Here  I  shall  speak 
of  him  chiefly  as  a  Public  Orator. 

Two  juvenile  orations  of  his  are  still  preserved, 
delivered  while  he  was  yet  a  lad  in  college.f     One  is 


*  See  the  Report  of  the  Case  of  the  Trustees  of  Dartmouth 
College,  etc.     Portsmouth,  N.  H.  [1819.] 

f  "  An  Oration  pronounced  at  Hanover,  N.  H.,  the  4th  day  of 
July,  1800,  being  the  Twenty-fourth  Anniversary  of  Indepen- 
dence, by  Daniel  Webster,  member  of  the  Junior  Class,  Dartmouth 
University. 

"  Do  thou,  great  Liberty,  inspire  our  souls. 
And  make  our  lives  in  thy  possession  happy. 
Or  our  deaths  glorious  in  thy  just  defence,"  etc. 

"  Hanover,  1800."  8vo.  pp.  15. 

"  Funeral  Oration,  occasioned  by  the  Death  of  Ephraim  SI- 

monds,  of  Templeton,  Mass.,  a    Member  of  the  Senior  Class  in 

Dartmouth  College,  who  died  at  Hanover  (N.  H.),  on  the  18th  of 

June,  1801,  aet.  26.     By  Daniel  Webster,  a  class-mate  of  the  do- 


172  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

a  Fourth-of-July  oration,  —  a  performance  good 
enough  for  a  lad  of  eighteen,  but  hardly  indicating 
the  talents  of  its  author.  The  sentiments  probably 
belong  to  the  neighborhood,  and  the  diction  to  the 
authorities  of  the  college  :  — 

"  Fair  Science,  too,  holds  her  gentle  empire  amongst  us,  and 
almost  Innumerable  altars  are  raised  to  her  divinity  from  Bruns- 
■wick  to  Florida.  Yale,  Providence,  and  Harvard  now  grace  our 
land;  and  Dartmouth,  towering  majestic  above  the  groves 
•which  encircle  her,  now  inscribes  her  glory  on  the  registers  of 
fame  !  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  those  oriential  stars  of  literature, 
shall  now  be  lost,  while  the  bright  sun  of  American  science  dis- 
plays his  broad  circumference  in  uneclipsed  radiance."  —  p.  10. 

Here  is  an  opinion  which  he  seems  to  have  enter- 
tained at  the  end  of  his  life.  He  speaks  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  Constitution  :  — 

"  We  then  saw  the  people  of  these  States  engaged  in  a  transac- 
tion, which  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  approximation  towards 
human  perfection  the  political  world  ever  yet  experienced ;  and 
which  will  perhaps  for  ever  stand,  in  the  history  of  mankind,  with- 
out a  parallel."  —  p.  8,  9. 

In  1806,  he  delivered  another  Fourth-of-July  ad- 
dress at  Concord,  N.  H.,*  containing  many  noble  and 
generous  opinions :  — 


ceased.     Et  vix  sentiunt  dicere  lingua.     Vale.    Hanover,  1801." 
8vo.  pp.  13. 

*  "  An  Anniversary  Address,   delivered   before   the    Federal 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  173 

"  Patriotism,"  said  he,  "  hath  a  source  of  consolation  that  clieers 
the  heart  In  these  unhappy  times,  when  good  men  are  rendered 
odious,  and  bad  men  popular ;  when  great  men  are  made  little, 
and  little  men  are  made  great.  A  genuine  patriot,  above  the 
reach  of  personal  considerations,  with  his  eye  and  his  heart  on 
the  honor  and  the  happiness  of  his  country,  is  a  character  as  easy 
and  as  satisfactory  to  himself  as  venerable  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
While  his  country  enjoys  freedom  and  peace,  he  will  rejoice  and 
be  thankful ;  and,  if  it  be  In  the  councils  of  Heaven  to  send  the 
storm  and  the  tempest,  he  meets  the  tumult  of  the  political 
elements  with  composure  and  dignity.  Above  fear,  above  danger, 
above  reproach,  he  feels  that  the  last  end  which  can  happen  to 
any  man  never  comes  too  soon,  if  he  fall  In  defence  of  the  law 
and  the  liberty  of  his  country."  —  p.  21. 

In  1812,  he  delivered  a  third  Fourth-of-July  ad- 
dress at  Portsmouth.*  The  political  storm  is  felt  in 
the  little  harbor  of  Portsmouth,  and  the  ,  speaker 
swells  with  the  tumult  of  the  sea.  He  is  hostile  to 
France ;  averse  to  the  war  with  England,  then 
waging,  yet  readyto  fight  and  pay  taxes  for  it.  He 
wants  a  navy.  He  comes  "  to  take  counsel  of  the 
dead,"  with  whom  he  finds  an  "  infallible  criterion." 
But,  alas !  "  dead  men  tell  no   tales,"  and   give   no 


Gentlemen  of  Concord  and  Its  Vicinity,  July  4,  1806.    By  Daniel 
Webster.     Concord,  N.  H.,  180G."  8vo.  pp.  21. 

*  "  An  Address  delivered  before  the  Washington  Benevolent 
Society  at  Portsmouth,  July  4,  1812.  By  Daniel  Webster. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H."  8vo.  pp.  27.  He  delivered  also  other  Fourth- 
of-July  addresses,  which  I  have  not  seen. 

15* 


174  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

.counsel.  There  was  then  no  witch  at  Portsmouth  to 
■bring'  up  Washington  quickly. 

His  subsequent  deference  to  the  money-power  be- 
'gins  to  appear:  "The  Federal  Constitution  was 
•adopted  for  no  single  reason  so  much  as  for  the 
protection  of  commerce."  "  Commerce  has  paid  the 
price  of  independence,"  It  has  been  committed  to 
the  care  of  the  general  government,  but  "  not  as  a 
convict  to  the  safe-keeping  of  a  jailor,"  "not  for  close 
confinement."  He  wants  a  navy  to  protect  it.  Such 
were  the  opinions  of  Federalists  around  him. 

But  these  speeches  of  his  youth  and  early  man- 
hood were  but  commonplace  productions.  In  his 
capacity  as  public  orator,  in  the  vigorous  period  of 
his  faculties,  he  made  three  celebrated  speeches,  not 
at  all  political,  —  at  Plymouth  Rock,  to  celebrate  the 
two  hundredth  anniversary  of  New  England's  birth  ; 
at  Bunker  Hill,  in  memory  of  the  chief  battle  of  New 
England ;  and  at  Faneuil  Hall,  to  honor  the  two 
great  men  who  died  when  the  nation  was  fifty  years 
old,  and  they  fourscore.  Each  of  these  orations  was 
a  great  and  noble  effort  of  patriotic  eloquence. 

Standing  on  Plymouth  Rock,  with  the  graves  of 
the  forefathers  around  him,  how  proudly  could  he 
say :  — 

■"  Our  ancestors  established  their'  system  of  government  on 
morality  and  reb'gious  sentiment.  Moral  habits,  they  believed, 
cannot  safely  be  trusted  on  any  other  foundation  than  religious 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  175 

principle,  nor  any  government  be  secure  which  is  not  supported 
by  moral  habits.  Living  under  the  heavenly  light  of  revelation, 
they  hoped  to  find  all  the  social  dispositions,  all  the  duties  which 
men  owe  to  each  other  and  to  society,  enforced  and  performed. 
Whatever  makes  men  good  Christians  makes  them  good  citizens. 
Our  fathers  came  here  to  enjoy  their  religion  free  and  unmo- 
lested ;  and,  at  the  end  of  two  centuries,  there  is  notiiing  upon 
which  we  can  pronounce  more  confidently,  nothing  of  which  we 
can  express  a  more  deep  and  earnest  conviction,  than  of  the  in- 
estimable importance  of  that  religion  to  man,  both  in  regard  to 
this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come." 

At  Bunker  Hill,  there  were  before  him  the  men  of 
the  Revolution,  —  venerable  men  who  drew  swords 
at  Lexington  and  Concord,  and  faced  the  fight  in 
many  a  fray.  There  was  the  French  nobleman, — 
would  to  God  that  France  had  many  such  to-day! 

—  who  perilled  his  fortune,  life,  and  reputation,  for 
freedom  in  America,  and  never  sheathed  the  sword 
he  drew  at  Yorktown  till  France  also  was  a  republic, 

—  Fayette  was  there ;  the  Fayette  of  two  revolu- 
tions ;  the  Fayette  of  Yorktown  and  Olmutz.  How 
well  could  he  say :  — 

"  Let  our  conceptions  be  enlarged  to  the  circle  of  our  duties. 
Let  us  extend  our  ideas  over  the  whole  of  the  vast  field  in  which 
we  are  called  to  act.     Let  our  object  be,  our  country,  our 

WHOLE  COUNTRY,  AND  NOTHING  BUT  OUR  COUNTRY.     And,  by 

the  blessing  of  God,  may  that  country  itself  become  a  vast  and 
splendid  monument,  not  of  oppression  and  terror,  but  of  wisdom, 
of  peace,  and  of  liberty,  upon  which  the  world  may  gaze  with  ad- 
miration for  ever ! " 


176  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

On  another  occasion,  he  stood  at  the  grave  of  two 
great  men,  who,  in  the  time  that  tried  men's  souls, 
were  of  the  earliest  to  peril  "  their  lives,  their  for- 
tunes, and  their  sacred  honor,"  —  men  who,  having 
been  one  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  were 
again  made  one  in  death  ;  for  then  the  people  re- 
turned to  the  cradle  wherein  the  elder  Adams  and 
Hancock  had  rocked  Liberty  when  young ;  and 
Webster  chaunted  the  psalm  of  commemoration  to 
Adams  and  J^erson,  who  had  helped  that  new-born 
child  to  walk.  He  brought  before  the  living  the 
mighty  dead.  In  his  words  they  fought  their  battles 
o'er  again ;  we  heard  them  resolve,  that,  "  sink  or 
swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,"  they  gave  their 
hand  and  their  heart  for  liberty;  and  Adams  and 
Jefferson  grew  greater  before  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
as  he  brought  them  up,  and  showed  the  massive 
services  of  those  men,  and  pointed  out  the  huge 
structure  of  that  human  fabric  which  had  gone  to 
the  grave :  — 

"  Adams  and  Jefferson,  I  have  said,  are  no  more.  As  human 
beings,  indeed,  they  are  no  more.  They  are  no  more,  as  in  1  776, 
bold  and  fearless  advocates  of  independence ;  no  more,  as  at  sub- 
sequent periods,  the  head  of  the  government ;  no  more,  as  we 
have  recently  seen  them,  aged  and  venerable  objects  of  admira- 
tion and  regard.  They  are  no  more.  They  are  dead.  But  how 
little  is  there  of  the  great  and  good  which  can  die !  To  their 
country  they  yet  live,  and  live  for  ever.  They  live  in  all  that 
perpetuates  the  remembrance  of  men  on  earth ;  in  the  recorded 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  177 

proofs  of  their  own  great  actions,  in  the  offspring  of  their  intel- 
lect, in  the  deep-engraved  lines  of  public  gratitude,  and  in  the 
respect  and  homage  of  mankind.  They  live  in  their  example ; 
and  they  live,  emphatically,  and  will  live,  in  the  influence  which 
their  lives  and  efforts,  their  principles  and  opinions,  now  exercise, 
and  will  continue  to  exercise,  on  the  affairs  of  men,  not  only  in 
their  own  country,  but  throughout  the  civilized  world." 

How  loftily  did  he  say :  — 

"  If  we  cherish  the  virtues  and  the  principles  of  our  fathers, 
Heaven  will  assist  us  to  carry  on  the  work  of  human  liberty  and 
human  happiness.  Auspicious  omens  cheer  us.  Great  examples 
are  before  us.  Our  own  firmament  now  shines  brightly  upon  our 
path.  Washington  is  in  the  clear,  upper  sky.  These  other  stars 
have  now  joined  the  American  constellation.  They  circle  round 
their  centre,  and  the  heavens  beam  with  new  light.  Beneath  this 
illumination  let  us  walk  the  course  of  life,  and,  at  its  close,  de- 
voutly commend  our  beloved  country,  the  common  parent  of  us 
all,  to  the  Divine  Benignity." 


As  a  political  officer,  I  shall  speak  of  him  as  a 
Legislator  and  Executor  of  the  law,  a  maker  and 
administrator  of  laws. 

In  November,  1812,  Mr.  Webster  was  chosen  as 
Representative  to  the  Thirteenth  Congress.  At  that 
time  the  country  was  at  war  with  Great  Britain  ;  and 
the  well-known  restraints  still  fettered  the  commerce 
of  the  country.  The  people  were  divided  into  two 
great  parties,  —  the  Federalists,  who  opposed  the 
embargo   and  the   war;   and   the   Democrats,  who 


178  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

favored  both.  Mr.  Madison,  then  President,  had 
been  forced  into  the  war,  contrary  to  his  own  con- 
victions of  expediency  and  of  right.  The  most  bitter 
hatred  prevailed  between  the  two  parties :  "  party 
pohtics  were  inexpressibly  violent."  An  eminent 
lawyer  of  Salem,  afterwards  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished jurists  in  the  world,  a  Democrat,*  was,  on 
account  of  his  political  opinions,  knocked  down  in 
the  street,  beaten,  and  forced  to  take  shelter  in  the 
house  of  a  friend,  whither  he  fled,  bleeding,  and 
covered  with  the  mud  of  the  streets.  Political  ran- 
cor invaded  private  life ;  it  occupied  the  pulpit ;  it 
blinded  men's  eyes  to  a  degree  almost  exceeding  be- 
lief:  were  it  not  now  again  a  fact,  we  should  not 
believe  it  possible  at  a  former  time. 

Mr.  Webster  was  a  Federalist,  earnest  and  de- 
voted, with  the  convictions  of  a  Federalist,  and  the 
prejudices  and  the  blindness  of  a  Federalist ;  and,  of 
course,  hated  by  men  who  had  the  convictions  of  a 
Democrat,  and  the  prejudices  and  blindness  thereof. 
It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  wilfulness  of 
thorough  partisans.  In  New  Hampshire  the  Judges 
were  Democrats ;  the  Federalists,  having  a  majority 
in  the  Legislature,  wished  to  be  rid  of  them,  and,  for 
that  purpose,  abolished  all  the  Courts  in  the  State, 
and  appointed  others  in  their  place  (1813).  I  men- 
tion this  only  to  show  the  temper  of  the  times. 

*  Joseph  Story. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  179 

There  was  no  great  principle  of  political  morals 
on  which  the  two  parties  differed,  only  on  measures 
of  expediency.  The  Federalists  demanded  freedom 
of  the  seas  and  protection  for  commerce  ;  but  they 
repeatedly,  solemnly,  and  officially  scorned  to  extend 
this  protection  to  sailors.  They  justly  complained 
of  the  embargo  that  kept  their  ships  from  the  sea, 
but  found  little  fault  with  the  British  for  impressing 
sailors  from  American  ships.  The  Democrats  pro- 
fessed the  greatest  regard  for  "  sailors'  rights ;  "  but, 
in  1814,  the  government  forbade  its  officers  to  grant 
protection  to  "  colored  sailors,"  though  Massachu- 
setts alone,  had  more  than  a  thousand  able  seamen 
of  that  class  !  A  leading  Federal  organ,  said,  — 
"  The  Union  is  dear ;  Commerce  is  still  more  dear." 
"  The  Eastern  States  agreed  to  the  Union  for  the 
sake  of  their  Commerce."  * 

With  the  Federalists  there  was  a  great  veneration 
for  England.  Mr.  Fisher  Ames,  said,  —  "  The  im- 
mortal spirit  of  the  wood-nymph  Liberty  dwells  only 
in  the  British  oak."  "  Our  country,"  quoth  he,  "  is 
too  big  for  union,  too  sordid  for  patriotism,  and  too 
democratic  for  liberty."  "  England,"  said  another, 
"  is  the  bulwark  of  our  religion,"  and  the  "  shield  of 
afflicted  humanity."  A  Federalist  newspaper  at 
Boston  censured  Americans  as  "  enemies  of  Eng- 
land and  monarchy,"  and  accused  the  Democrats  of 

*  "Columbian  Centinel  "  for  July  25th,  1812. 


180  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

"  antipathy  to  kingly  power."  Did  Democrats  com- 
plain that  our  prisoners  were  ill-treated  by  the  Brit- 
ish, it  was  declared  "  foolish  and  wicked  to  throw 
the  blame  on  the  British  government ! "  Americans 
expressed  indignation  at  the  British  outrages  at 
Hampton, — burning  houses  and  violating  the  wo- 
men. The  Federal  newspapers  said,  it  is  "  impossi- 
ble that  their  (the  British)  military  or  naval  men 
should  be  other  than  magnanimous  and  humane." 
Mr.  Clay  accused  the  Federalists  of  "  plots  that  aim 
at  the  dismemberment  of  the  Union,"  and  denounced 
the  party  as  "  conspirators  against  the  integrity  of 
the  nation." 

In  general,  the  Federalists  maintained  that  Eng- 
land had  a  right  to  visit  American  vessels  to  search 
for  and  take  her  own  subjects,  if  found  there ;  and, 
if  she  sometimes  took  an  American  citizen,  that  was 
only  an  "  incidental  evil."  Great  Britain,  said  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature,  has  done  us  "  no  essen- 
tial injury : "  she  "  was  fighting  the  battles  of  the 
world."  They  denied  that  she  had  impressed  "  any 
considerable  number  of  American  seamen."  Such 
was  the  language  of  Mr.  Webster  and  the  party  he 
served.  But  even  at  that  time  the  "  Edinburgh 
Review  "  declared,  "  Every  American  seaman  might 
be  said  to  hold  his  liberty,  and  ultimately  his  life,  at 
the  discretion  of  a  foreign  commander.  In  many 
cases,  accordingly,  native-born  Americans  were 
dragged  on  board  British  ships  of  war :  they  were 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  181 

dispersed  in  the  remotest  quarters  of  the  globe,  and 
not  only  exposed  to  the  perils  of  service,  but  shut 
out  by  their  situation  from  all  hope  of  ever  being 
reclaimed.  The  right  of  reclaiming  runaway  seamen 
was  exercised,  in  short,  without  either  moderation  or 
justice." 

Over  six  thousand  cases  of  impressment  were  re- 
corded in  the  American  Department  of  State.  In 
Parliament,  Lord  Castlereagh  admitted  that  there 
were  three  thousand  five  hundred  men  in  the  British 
fleet  claiming  to  be  American  citizens,  and  sLxteen 
hundred  of  them  actually  citizens.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  two  thousand  five  hundred  Ameri- 
can citizens,  impressed  into  the  British  navy,  refused 
to  fight  against  their  native  land,  and  were  shut  up 
in  Dartmoor  prison.  When  the  Guerriere  was  cap- 
tured, there  were  ten  American  sailors  on  board  who 
refused  to  fight.  In  Parliament,  in  1808,  Mr.  Baring 
(Lord  Ashburton)  defended  the  rights  of  Americans 
against  the  British  orders  in  council,  while  in  1812 
and  1813  the  Federalists  could  "  not  find  out  the 
cases  of  impressment "  ;  —  such  was  the  influence  of 
party  spirit. 

The  party  out  of  power  is  commonly  the  friend  of 
freedom.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts 
declared  that  unconstitutional  acts  of  Congress  were 
void;  the  Legislature  declared  it  the  duty  of  the 
State  Courts  to  prevent  usurped  and  unconstitu- 
tional powers  from  being  exercised  :  "  It  is  the  duty 

VOL.    I.  16 


182  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

of  the  present  generation  to  stand  between  the  next 
and  despotism ; "  "  Whenever  the  national  compact 
is  violated,  and  the  citizens  of  this  State  oppressed 
by  cruel  and  unauthorized  enactments,  this  Legisla- 
ture is  bound  to  interpose  its  power  to  wrest  from 
the  oppressor  his  victim." 

After  the  Federal  party  had  taken  strong  ground, 
Ml-.  Webster  opposed  the  administration,  opposed 
the  war,  took  the  part  of  England  in  the  matter  of 
impressment.  He  drew  up  the  Brentwood  Memo- 
rial, once  so  famous  all  over  New  England,  now  for- 
gotten and  faded  out  of  all  men's  memory.* 

On  the  24th  of  May,  1813,  Mr.  Webster  first  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  at  the  extra 
session  of  the  thirteenth  Congress.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and  indus- 
triously opposed  the  administration.  In  the  three 
sessions  of  this  Congress,  he  closely  followed  the 
leaders  of  the  Federal  party ;  voting  with  Mr.  Pick- 
ering a  hundred  and  ninety-one  times,  and  against 
him  only  fom*  times,  in  the  two  years.  Sometimes 
he  "  avoided  the  question  ; "  but  voted  against  thank- 
ing Commodore  Perry  for  his  gallant  conduct,  against 
the  purchase  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  library,  against  naval 
supplies,  direct  taxes,  and  internal  duties. 

He  opposed  the  government  scheme  of  a  National 


*  I  purposely  pass  over  other  political  writings  and  speeches 
of  his. 


DANIEL   AVEBSTER.  183 

Bank.*  No  adequate  reports  of  his  speeches  against 
the  warf  are  preserved;  but,  to  judge  from  the  testi- 
mony of  an  eminent  man,  J  they  contained  prophetic 
indications  of  that  oratorical  power  which  was  one 
day  so  mightily  to  thunder  and  lighten  in  the  nation's 
eyes.  Yet  his  influence  in  Congress  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  great.  In  later  years  he  defended  the 
United  States  Bank;  but  that  question,  like  others, 
had  then  become  a  party  question ;  and  a  horse  in 
the  party-team  must  go  on  with  his  fellows,  or  be 
flayed  by  the  driver's  lash. 

But  though  his  labors  were  not  followed  by  any 
very  marked  influence  at  Washington,  at  home  he 
drew  on  himself  the  wrath  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Mr.  Isaac  Hill,  the  editor  of  the  leading  Democratic 
paper  in  New  Hampshire,  pursued  him  with  intense 
personal  hatred.  He  sneeringly  says,  and  falsely, 
"  The  great  Mr.  Webster,  so  extremely  flippant  in 
arguing  petty  suits  in  the  courts  of  law,  cuts  but  a 
sorry  figure  at  Washington :  his  overweening  con- 
fidence and  zeal  cannot  there  supply  the  place  of 
knowledge."  § 

He  was  sneeringly  called  the  "  great,"  the  "  elo- 
quent,"  the   "  preeminent "    Daniel    Webster.      His 

*  Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  January  2,  1815. 
Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  35,  et  seq. 

t  See  his  Speech  in  House  of  Representatives,  January  14, 
1814,  on  the  Army  Bill.     Alexandria,  1814.     8vo.  pp.  14. 

%  Mr.  Story. 

§  "  New  Hampshire  Patriot"  of  July  27,  1813. 


184  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

deeds,  his  words,  his  silence,  all  were  represented  as 
coming  from  the  basest  motives,  and  serving  the 
meanest  ends.  His  Journal  at  Portsmouth  was 
called  the  "  lying  Oracled  Listen  to  this :  "  Mr. 
Webster  spoke  much  and  often  when  he  was  in 
Congress ;  and,  if  he  had  studied  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  (as  some  of  his  colleagues  probably  did), 
he  would  have  discovered  that  a  fool  is  knoivn  by  his 
much  speaking^ 

IVIr.  Webster,  in  common  with  his  party,  refused 
to  take  part  in  the  war.  "  I  honor,"  said  he,  "  the 
people  that  shrink  from  such  a  contest  as  this.  T 
applaud  their  sentiments :  they  are  such  as  religion 
and  humanity  dictate,  and  such  as  none  but  can- 
nibals would  wish  to  eradicate  .from  the  human 
heart."  Whereupon  the  editor  asks,  Will  not  the 
federal  soldiers  call  the  man  who  made  the  speech 
"  a  cold-blooded  wretch,  whose  heart  is  callous  to 
every  patriotic  feeling  ?  "  *  and  then,  "  We  do  not 
wonder  at  Mr.  Webster's  reluctance  again  to  appear 
at  the  city  of  Washington  "  (he  was  attending  cases 
at  court) :  "  even  his  native  brass  must  be  abashed 
at  his  own  conduct,  at  his  own  speeches."  f  Flattery 
"  has  spoiled  him  ;  for  application  might  have  made 
him  something  a  dozen  years  hence.  It  has  given 
him  confidence,  a  face  of  brass,  which  and  his  native 


*"New  Hampshire  Patriot,"  August  27,  1814. 
t  Id.,  October  4,  1814. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  185 

volubility  are  mistaken  for  '  preeminent  talent.'  Of 
all  men  in  the  State,  he  is  the  fittest  to  be  the  tool 
of  the  enemy."  *  He  was  one  of  the  men  that  bring 
the  "  nation  to  the  verge  of  ruin ;  "  a  "  Thompsonian 
intriguer  ;  "  a  "  Macfarland  admirer  ;  "  "  The  self- 
importance  and  gross  egotism  he  displays  are  dis- 
gusting ; "  "  You  would  suppose  him  a  great  mer- 
chant, living  in  a  maritime  city,  and  not  a  man 
reared  in  the  ivoods  of  Salisbmy,  or  educated  in  the 
ivilds  of  Hanover."  f 

Before  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  IVIr.  Hill  ac- 
cused him  of  "  deliberate  falsehood,"  of  "  telling  bold 
untruths  to  justify  the  enormities  of  the  enemy."  $ 
The  cry  was  raised,  "The  Union  is  in  danger."  Mr. 
Webster  was  to  bring  about  "  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  ;  "  §  "  The  few  conspirators  in  Boston,  who 
aim  at  the  division  of  the  Union,  and  the  English 
Government,  who  support  them  in  their  rebellion,  ap- 
pear to  play  into  each  other's  hands  with  remarkable 
adroitness."  The  Patriot  speaks  of  "the  mad  meas- 
ures of  the  Boston  junto  ;  the  hateful,  hypocritical 
scheme  of  its  canting,  disaffected  chief,  and  the 
audacious  tone  of  its  public  prints."  ||  The  language 
of  Washington  was  quoted  against  political  foes  ; 
his  Farewell  Address  reprinted.     Mr.  Webster  was 


*  "  New  Hampshire  Patriot,"  August  2,  1814. 

t  Id.,  Aug.  9,  1814.  X   Id.,  Oct.  29,  1812. 

§  Id.,  Oct,  13,  1812. 

II  March  30,  1813,  quoted  from  the  "  Baltimore  Patriot" 

16* 


186  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

charged  with  "  setting  the  North  against  the  South." 
The  Essex  junto  was  accused  of  "  a  plot  to  destroy 
the  Union,"  in  order  "  to  be  under  the  glorious  shelter 
of  British  protection."*  The  Federalists  were  a 
"  British  faction ; "  the  country  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature  were  "  wooden  mem- 
bers ; "  distinguished  characters  were  "  exciting  hos- 
tility against  the  Union  ;"  one  of  these  "  ought  to  be 
tied  to  the  tail  of  a  Congreve  rocket,  and  offered  up 
a  burnt  sacrifice."  It  was  "  moral  treason  "  not  to 
rejoice  at  the  victories  of  the  nation  —  it  was  not 
then  "  levying  war."  The  Legislature  of  New  Jersey 
called  the  acts  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
"the  ravings  of  an  infuriated  faction,"  and  Gov. 
Strong  a  "  Maniac  Governor."  The  "  Boston  Patri- 
ot"! called  Mr.  Webster  "the  poor  fallen  Webster," 
who  "  curses  heartily  his  setters  on : "  "  the  poor 
creature  is  confoundedly  mortified."  Mr.  Clay,  in 
Congress,  could  speak  of  "  the  howlings  of  the  whole 
British  pack,  let  loose  from  the  Essex  junto  : "  the 
Federalists  were  attempting  "to  familiarize  the  pub- 
lic mind  with  the  horrid  scheme  of  disunion."  ij:  And 
Isaac  Hill  charged  the  Federalists  with  continually 
"  threatening  a  separation  of  the  States  ;  striving  to 
stir  up  the  passions  of  the  North  against  the  South, 


*  •"  Boston  Patriot,"  No.  1 . 

if  July  21,1813. 

j:  Speech  in  House  of  Representatives,  January  8, 1813. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  ^        187 

—  in  clear  defiance  of  the  dying  injunctions  of 
Washington."*  I  mention  these  things  that  all  may 
understand  the  temper  of  those  times. 

In  1815,  Mr.  "Webster  sought  for  the  oflfice  of  At- 
torney-General of  New  Hampshire,  but,  failing  there- 
of, was  reelected  to  the  House  of  Representatives.! 
In  the  fourteenth  Congress,  two  important  measures 
came  up  amongst  others,  —  the  Bank  and  the  Tariff. 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Clay  favored  the  establishment 
of  a  national  bank,  with  a  capital  of  $35,000,000. 
Mr.  Webster  opposed  it  by  votes  and  words,  reaf- 
firming the  sound  doctrines  of  his  former  speech  : 
the  founders  of  the  Constitution  were  "hard-money 
men ; "  government  must  not  receive  the  paper  of 
banks  which  do  not  pay  specie ;  but  "  the  taxes 
must  be  paid  in  the  legal  money  of  the  country."  J 
Such  was  the  doctrine  of  the  leading  Federalists  of 
the  time,  and  the  practice  of  New  England.  He  in- 
troduced a  resolution,  that  all  revenues  of  the  United 
States  should  be  paid  in  the  legal  currency  of  the 
nation.  It  met  scarce  any  opposition,  and  was 
passed  the  same  day.  I  think  this  was  the  greatest 
service  he  ever  performed  in  relation  to  our  national 


*  "New  Hampshire  Patriot"  for  June  7,  1814. 

t  See  the  Farmers'  Monthly  Visitor,  vol.  xii.  p.  198,  et  seq. 
(Manchester,  N.  H.  1832.) 

X  Speech  in  House  of  Representatives,  Feb.  28,  1816  (in  "  Na- 
tional Intelligencer"  for  March  2,  181G).  See  also  Works,  vol.  iii. 
p.  35,  et  seq. 


188  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

currency  or  national  finance.     He  was  himself  proud 
of  it  in  his  later  years.* 

The  protective  tariff  was  supported  by  Messrs. 
Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Lowndes.  Mr.  Webster  opposed 
it;  for  the  capitalists  of  the  North,  then  deeply  en- 
gaged in  commerce,  looked  on  it  as  hostile  to  their 
shipping,  and  talked  of  the  "  dangers  of  manufac- 
tories." Was  it  for  this  reason  that  the  South,  al- 
ways jealous  of  the  Northern  thrifty  toil,  proposed 
it  ?  So  it  was  alleged.f  Mr.  Webster  declared  that 
Congress  has  no  constitutional  right  to  levy  duties 
for  protection  ;  only  for  revenue ;  revenue  is  the  con- 
stitutional substance  ;  protection,  only  the  accidental 
shadow.  :|: 

In  1816,  Mr.  Webster  removed  to  Boston.  In 
1819,  while  he  was  a  private  citizen,  a  most  impor- 
tant question  came  before  the  nation,  —  Shall  slavery 
be  extended  into  the  Missouri  Territory  ?  Here,  too, 
Mr.  Webster  was  on  the  side  of  freedom.  §  He  was 
one  of  a  committee  appointed  by  a  meeting  of  the 
citizens  of  Boston  to  call  a  general  meeting  of  the 


*  It  passed  April  26,  1816.     Yeas  79;  nays,  35. 

f  But  see  Mr.  Calhoun's  defence  of  his  course.  Life  and 
Speeches.     New  York,  1843.  p.  329. 

X  Speech  in  House  of  Representatives. 

§  In  Mr.  Everett's  Memoir  prefixed  to  the  Works  of  Mr. 
Webster,  no  mention  is  made  of  this  opposition  to  the  Missouri 
Compromise ! 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  189 

citizens  to  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery.  The 
United  States  Marshal  was  chairman  of  the  meeting. 
Mr.  Webster  was  one  of  the  committee  to  report 
resolutions  at  a  subsequent  meeting.  The  preamble 
said :  — 

"  The  extirpation  of  slavery  has  never  ceased  to  be  a  measure 
deeply  concerning  the  honor  and  safety  of  the  United  States." 
"  In  whatever  tends  to  diminish  the  evil  of  slavery,  or  to  check 
its  growth,  all  parts  of  the  confederacy  are  alike  interested."  "  If 
slavery  is  established  in  Missouri,  then  it  will  be  burdened  with 
all  the  mischiefs  which  are  too  well  known  to  be  the  sure  results 
of  slavery ;  an  evil,  which  has  long  been  deplored,  would  be  in- 
calculably augmented  ;  the  whole  confederacy  would  be  weakened, 
and  our  free  institutions  disgraced,  by  the  voluntary  extension  of 
a  practice  repugnant  to  all  the  principles  of  a  free  government, 
the  continuance  of  which  in  any  part  of  our  country  necessity 
alone  has  justified." 

It  was  Resolved,  that  Congress  "  possesses  the  constitutional 
power,  upon  the  admission  of  any  new  State  created  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  original  territory  of  the  United  States,  to  make  the 
prohibition  of  the  further  extension  of  slavery  or  involuntary  ser- 
vitude in  such  new  State,  a  condition  of  its  admission."  "  It  -is 
just  and  expedient  that  this  power  should  be  exercised  by  Con- 
gress, upon  the  admission  of  all  new  States  created  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  original  territory  of  the  United  States." 

In  a  speech,  Mr.  Webster  "  showed  incontroverti- 
bly  that  Congress  had  this  power;  that  they  were 
called  upon  by  all  the  principles  of  sound  policy, 
humanity,  and  morality,  to  enact  it,  and,  by  prohibit- 


190  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

• 

ing  slavery  in  the  new  State  of  Missouri,  oppose  a 
barrier  to  the  future  progress  of  slavery,  which  else 
—  and  this  was  the  last  time  the  opportunity  would 
happen  to  fix  its  limits  —  would  roll  on  desolating 
the  vast  expanse  of  continent  to  the  Pacific  Ocean."  * 
Mr.  Webster  was  appointed  chairman  of  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  a  memorial  to  Congress  on  this 
matter.f     He  said:  — 

"  We  have  a  strong  feeling  of  the  injustice  of  any  toleration  of 
slavery."  But,  "  to  permit  it  In  a  new  country,  what  is  it  but  to 
encourage  that  rapacity  and  fraud  and  violence,  against  which  we 
have  so  long  jiointed  the  denunciations  of  our  penal  code  ?  What 
is  it  but  to  tarnish  the  proud  fame  of  our  country  ?  What  is  it 
but  to  throw  suspicion  on  its  good  faith,  and  to  render  question- 
able all  its  professions  of  regard  for  the  rights  of  humanity,  and 
the  liberties  of  mankind  ?  "  —  p.  21. 

At  that  time,  such  was  the  general  opinion  of  the 
Northern  men.:|:     A  writer  in  the  leading  journal  of 


*  Account  of  a  Meeting  at  the  State  House  in  Boston,  Dec.  3, 
1819,  to  consider  the  Extension  of  Slavery  by  the  United  States 
(in  "  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  "  for  Dec.  4,  1819). 

t  "  A  Memorial  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
Subject  of  Restraining  the  Increase  of  Slavery  in  the  New  States 
to  be  admitted  Into  the  Union,"  etc.  etc.  Boston,  1819.  pp.  22. 

i  See  a  valuable  series  of  papers  in  the  "  Boston  Daily  Adver- 
tiser," No.  I.  to  VI.,  on  this  subject,  from  Nov.  20  to  Dec.  28, 
1819.  Charge  of  Judge  Story  to  the  Grand  Juries,  etc.;  ibid. 
Dec.  7  and  8,  1819.  Article  on  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in 
"North  American  Review,"  Jan.  1820.  Mr.  King's  speech  In 
Senate  of  United  States,  in  "  Columbian  Centinel "  for  Jan.  19  and 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  191 

Boston  said :  "  Other  calamities  are  trifles  compared 
to  this  (slavery).  War  has  alleviations ;  if  it  does 
much  evil,  it  does  some  good :  at  least,  it  has  an  end. 
But  negro-slavery  is  misery  without  mixture  ;  it  is 
Pandora's  box,  but  no  Hope  at  the  bottom ;  it  is  evil, 
and  only  evil,  and  that  continually."  * 

A  meeting  of  the  most  respectable  citizens  of 
Worcester  resolved  against  "  any  further  extension 
of  slavery,"  as  "  rendering  our  boasted  Land  of 
Liberty  preeminent  only  as  a  mart  for  Human 
Flesh."  ■ 

"  Sad  prospects,"  said  the  "Boston  Daily  Adver- 
tiser," "  indeed  for  emancipators  and  colonizers,  that, 
faster  than  the  wit  or  the  means  of  men  can  devise 
a  method  even  for  keeping  stationary  the  frightful 
propagation  of  slavery,  other  men,  members  of  the 
same  community,  sometimes  colleagues  of  the  same 
deliberative  assembly  will  be  compassing,  with  all 
their  force,  the  widest  possible  extension  of  sla- 
very." f 

The  South  uttered  its  threat  of  "  dissolving  the 
Union,"  if  slavery  were  not  extended  west  of  the 
Mississippi.  "  The  threat,"  said  a  writer,  "  when  we 
consider  from  whence  it  comes,  raises  at  once  won- 


22,  1820.  See  also  the  comments  of  the  "  Dally  Advertiser"  on 
the  treachery  of  Mr.  Mason,  the  Boston  representative,  March  28 
and  29,  1820. 

*  "  L.M."  in  "  Columbian  Centinel  "  for  Dec.  8,  1819. 

t  "  Boston  Daily  Advertiser"  for  Nov.  20,  1819. 


192  DANIEL  WEBSTEK. 

der  and  pity,  but  has  never  been  thought  worth  a 
serious  answer  here.  Even  the  academicians  of 
Laputa  never  imagined  such  a  nation  as  these  seced- 
ing States  would  form."  "  We  have  lost  much  ;  our 
national  honor  has  received  a  stain  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world  ;  we  have  enlarged  the  sphere  of  human 
misery  and  crime."  *  Only  four  New  Englanders 
voted  for  the  Missouri  Compromise,  —  Hill  and 
Holmes  of  Maine,  Mason  and  Shaw  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

Mr.  Webster  held  no  public  office  in  this  State, 
until  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Convention 
for  amending  the  Constitution  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

It  appears  that  he  had  a  large  influence  in  the 
Massachusetts  Convention.  His  speeches,  however, 
do  not  show  any  remarkable  depth  of  philosophy,  or 
width  of  historic  view  ;  but  they  display  the  strength 
of  a  great  mind  not  fully  master  of  his  theme.  They 
are  not  always  fair ;  they  sometimes  show  the 
specious  arguments  of  the  advocate,  and  do  not 
always  indicate  the  soundness  of  the  judge.  He 
developed  no  new  ideas;  looked  back  more  than 
forward.  He  stated  his  opinions  with  clearness  and 
energy.  His  leaning  was  then,  as  it  always  was, 
towards  the  concentration  of  power ;  not  to  its  difFu- 

*  "  Boston  Daily  Advertiser"  of  March  16,  1820. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  193 

sion.  It  was  the  Federal  leaning  of  New  England 
at  the  time.  He  had  no  philosophical  objection  to  a 
technical  religious  test  as  the  qualification  for  office, 
but  did  not  think  it  expedient  to  found  a  measure  on 
that  principle.  He  wanted  property,  and  not  popu- 
lation, as  the  basis  of  representation  in  the  senate. 
It  was  "  the  true  basis  and  measure  of  power." 
"  Political  power,"  said  he,  "  naturally  and  necessa- 
rily goes  into  the  hands  which  holds  the  property." 
The  House  might  rest  on  men,  the  Senate  on  money. 
He  said,  "  It  would  seem  to  be  the  part  of  political 
wisdom  to  found  government  on  property ; "  yet 
he  wished  to  have  the  property  diffused  as  widely  as 
possible.  He  was  not  singular  in  this  preference  of 
money  to  men.  Others  thought,  that,  to  put  the 
Senate  on  the  basis  of  population,  and  not  property, 
was  a  change  of  *'  an  alarming  character." 

He  had  small  confidence  in  the  people  ;  apparently 
little  sympathy  with  the  multitude  of  men.  He  was 
jealous  of  the  liCgislature  ;  afraid  of  its  encroach- 
ment on  the  Judiciary,  —  New  Hampshire,  had  per- 
haps, shown  him  examples  of  legislative  injustice,  — 
but  contended  ably  for  the  independence  of  Judges. 
He  had  great  veneration  for  the  existing  Constitution, 
and  thought  there  would  "never  be  any  occasioo 
for  great  changes "  in  it,  and  that  "  no  revision  of 
its  general  principles  would  be  necessary."^  Others 
of  the  same  party  thought  also  that  the  Constitution 
was  "  the  most  perfect  system  that  human  wisdom 

VOL.   I.  17 


194  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

had  ever  devised."  To  judge  from  the  record,  Mr. 
Webster  found  abler  heads  than  his  own  in  that 
Convention.  Indeed  it  would  have  been  surprising 
if  a  young  man,  only  eight  and  thirty  years  of  age, 
should  surpass  the  "  assembled  wisdom  of  the 
State."  * 

On  the  2d  of  December,  1823,  Mr.  Webster  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  as  member 
for  Boston.  He  defended  the  cause  of  the  Greeks 
"  with  the  power  of  a  great  mind  applied  to  a  great 
subject,"  denounced  the  "  Holy  Alliance,"  and  rec- 
ommended interference  to  prevent  oppression.  Pub- 
lic opinion   set  strongly  in  that  direction.!     "  The 


*  Some  valuable  passages  of  Mr.  Webster's  speeches  are  omit- 
ted from  the  edition  of  his  Works.  (Compare  vol.  iii.  pp.  15  and 
17, -nitli  the  "Journal  of  Debates  and  Proceedings  In  the  Con- 
vention of  Delegates,"  etc.  Boston,  1821.  pp.  143,  144,  and  145, 
146.)  A  reason  for  the  omission  will  be  obvious  to  any  one 
who  reads  the  original,  and  remembers  the  position  and  expecta- 
tions of  the  author  in  1851. 

•|-  Meetings  had  been  held  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  other  important  towns,  and  considerable  sums  of  money- 
raised  on  behalf  of  the  Greeks.  Even  the  educated  men  were 
filled  with  enthusiasm  for  the  descendants  of  Anacreon  and  Peri- 
cles. The  leading  journals  of  England  were  on  the  same  side. 
See  the  letters  of  John  Q.  Adams  to  Mr.  Kich  and  Mr.  Luriottis, 
Dec.  18,  1823  ;  and  of  John  Adams,  Dec.  29,  1823.  Mr.  Clay 
was  on  the  same  side  with  Mr.  Webster.  But  Mr.  Kandolph,  in 
his  speech  in  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  20,  1824,  tartly 
asked,  "  Why  have  we  never  sent  an  envoy  to  our  sister  republic 
Havti?" 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  195 

policy  of  our  Government,"  said  he,  "is  on  the  side 
of  liberal  and  enlightened  sentiments  ; "  "  The  civil- 
ized world  has  done  with  '  The  enormous  faith  of 
many  made  for  one.'  "  * 

In  1816  he  had  opposed  a  tariff  which  levied  a 
heavy  duty  on  imports  ;  in  1824  he  opposed  it  again, 
with  vigorous  arguments.  His  speech  at  that  time 
is  a  work  of  large  labor,  of  some  nice  research,  and 
still  of  value.f  "  Like  a  mighty  giant,"  says  Mr. 
Hayne,  "  he  bore  away  upon  his  shoulders  the  pil- 
lars of  the  temple  of  error  and  delusion,  escaping 
himself  unhurt,  and  leaving  his  adversaries  over- 
whelmed in  its  ruins."  He  thought,  "  the  authority 
of  Congress  to  exercise  the  revenue-power  with 
direct  reference  to  the  protection  of  manufactures  is 
a  questionable  authority."  J  He  represented  the 
opinion  of  New  England,  which  "  discountenanced 
the  progress  of  this  policy "  of  high  duties.  The 
Federalists  of  the  North  inclined  to  free  trade ;  in 
1807  Mr.  Dexter  thought  it  "  an  unalienable  right,"  § 
and  in  1820  Judge  Story  asked  why  should  "  the 
laboring  classes  be  taxed  for  the  necessaries  of  life  ?  "|| 

*  See  the  just  and  beautiful  remarks  of  Mr.  Webster  in  this 
speech.  Works,  vol.  iii.  pp.  77,  78,  and  92  and  93.  Oh  si  sic 
semper  ! 

t  Vol.  iii.  p.  94,  et  seq.  See  Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Oct.  2, 
1820. 

X  Speech  in  reply  to  Hayne,  vol.  iii.  p.  305. 

§  Argument  in  District  Court  of  Massachusetts  against  the 
Embargo. 

II  Memorial  of  the  Citizens  of  Salem. 


196  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

The  tariff  of  1824  got  but  one  vote  from  Massachu- 
setts. As  the  public  judgment  of  Northern  capitalists 
changed,  it  brought  over  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster, who  seems  to  have  had  no  serious  and  sober 
convictions  on  this  subject.  At  one  time,  he  declares 
the  protective  system  is  ruinous  to  the  laboring  man ; 
but  again  "it  is  aimed  point-blank  at  the  protection 
of  labor ;  "  and  the  duty  on  coal  must  not  be  dimin- 
ished, lest  coal  grow  scarce  and  dear.*  Non-impor- 
tation was  "  an  American  instinct."  f 

In  1828  he  voted  for  "  the  bill  of  abominations," 
as  that  tariff  was  called,  which  levied  "  thirty-two 
millions  of  duties  on  sixty-four  millions  of  imports," 
"  not  because  he  was  in  favor  of  the  measure,  but 
as  the  least  of  two  evils." 

In  1816  the  South  wanted  a  protective  tariff:  the 
commercial  North  hated  it.  It  was  Mr.  Calhoun  $ 
who  introduced  the  measure  first.  Mr.  Clay  gave  it 
the  support  of  his  large  talents  and  immense  per- 
sonal influence,  and  built  up  the  "  American  Sys- 
tem." Pennsylvania  and  New  York  were  on  that 
side.  General  Jackson  voted  for  the  tariff  of  1824. 
Mr.  Clay  was  jealous  of  foreign  commerce :  it  was 
"  the  great  source  of  foreign  wars  ; "  "  The  predilec- 


*  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  309.  f  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  352. 

X  See  Mr.  Calhoun's  reason  for  this.  Life  and  Speeches,  p.  70, 
et  seq.  But  see  the  articles  of  a  "  Friend  to  Truth  "  upon  Mr. 
Calhoun  and  the  Protective  System,  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer 
for  November,  1832. 


DANIEL   AVEBSTER.  197 

tion  of  the  school  of  the  Essex  junto,"  said  he,  "  for 
foreign  "trade  and  British  fabrics  is  unconquerable." 
Yet  he  correctly  said,  "  New  England  will  have  the 
first  and  richest  fruits  of  the  tariff."  * 

After  the  system  of  protection  got  footing,  the 
Northern  capitalists  set  about  manufacturing  in 
good  earnest,  and  then  Mr.  Webster  became  the 
advocate  of  a  high  tariff  of  protective  duties.  Here 
he  has  been  blamed  for  his  change  of  opinion  ;  but 
to  him  it  was  an  easy  change.  He  was  not  a  scien- 
tific legislator :  he  had  no  great  and  comprehensive 
ideas  of  that  part  of  legislation  which  belongs  to 
political  economy.  He  looked  only  at  the  fleeting 
interest  of  his  constituents,  and  took  their  transient 
opinions  of  the  hour  for  his  norm  of  conduct.  As 
these  altered,  his  own  views  also  changed.  Some- 
times the  change  was  a  revolution.!  It  seems  to 
me  his  first  opinion  was  right,  and  his  last  a  fatal 
mistake,  that  he  never  answered  his  first  great  speech 
of  1824 :  but  it  also  appears  that  he  was  honest  in 
the  change  ;  for  he  only  looked  at  the  pecuniary  in- 


*  Speech  in  House  of  Representatives,  April  26, 1820.  Works, 
.  (New  York,  1843,)  vol.  i.  p.  159. 

t  Compare  his  speeches  on  the  tariif  in  1824  and  1828  (Works, 
vol.  iii.  p.  94,  et  seq. ;  and  228,  et  seq.)  with  his  subsequent 
speeches  thereon  in  1837,  1846.  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  304,  et  seq.; 
vol.  V.  p.  361,  et  seq.;  and  vol.  ii.  p.  130,  et  seq.  and  340,  et  seq. 
Compare  vol.  iii.  p.  118,  et  seq.  and  124,  et  seq.  with  vol.  ii.  p.  357, 
See  his  reasons  for  the  change  of  opinion  in  vol.  v.  p.  186  and  240. 
All  of  these  speeches  are  marked  by  great  ability  of  statement. 

17* 


198  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

terest  of  his  employers,  and  took  their  opinions  for 
his  guide.  But  he  had  other  fluctuations  on  this 
matter  of  the  tariff,  which  do  not  seem  capable  of  so 
honorable  an  explanation.* 

In  the  days  of  nullification,  Mr.  Webster  denied 
the  right  of  South  Carolina  to  secede  from  tli^ 
Union,  or  to  give  a  final  interpretation  of  the  Con- 
stitution. She  maintained  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment had  violated  the  Constitution ;  that  she, 
the  aggrieved  State  of  South  Carolina,  was  the 
judge  in  that  matter,  and  had  a  constitutional  right 
to  "  nullify "  the  Constitution,  and  withdraw  from 
the  Union. 

The  question  is  a  deep  one.  It  is  the  old  is- 
sue of  Federal  and  Democrat,  —  the  question  be- 
tween the  constitutional  power  of  the  whole,  and 
the  power  of  the  parts,  —  Federal  power  and  State 
power.  ]VIr.  Webster  was  always  in  favor  of  a 
strong  central  government ;  honestly  in  favor  of  it,  I 
doubt  not.  His  speeches  on  that  subject  were  most 
masterly  speeches.  I  refer,  in  particular,  to  that  in 
1830  against  Mr.  Hayne,  and  the  speech  in  1833 
against  Mr.  Calhoun. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  great  political  speech  of 


*  Compare  his  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  September,  30,  1842, 
•with  his  tariff  speeches  in  1846.  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  130,  et  seq. 
with  vol.  V.  p.  161,  et  seq.  and  vol.  ii.  p.  349,  et  seq. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  199 

Daniel  Webster.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  is 
just  in  its  political  ethics,  or  deep  in  the  metaphysics 
of  politics,  or  far-sighted  in  its  political  providence. 
I  only  mean  to  say  that  it  surpasses  all  his  other 
political  speeches  in  the  massive  intellectual  power 
of  statement.  Mr.  Webster  was  then  eight  and 
forty  years  old.  He  defended  New  England  against 
Mr.  Hayne ;  he  defended  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  against  South  Carolina.  His  speech 
is  full  of  splendid  eloquence ;  he  reached  high,  and 
put  the  capstone  upon  his  fame,  whose  triple  foun- 
dation he  had  laid  at  Plymouth,  at  Bunker  Hill,  and 
at  Faneuil  Hall.  The  "  republican  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature "  unanimously  thanked 
him  for  his  able  vindication  of  their  State.  A  Vir- 
ginian, who  heard  the  speech,  declared  he  felt  "  as  if 
looking  at  a  mammoth  treading  his  native  cane- 
brake,  and,  without  apparent  consciousness,  crush- 
ing obstacles  which  nature  had  never  designed  as 
impediments  to  him." 

He  loved  concentrated  power,  and  seems  to  have 
thought  the  American  Government  was  exclusively 
national,  and  not  Federal.*  The  Constitution  was 
"  not  a  compact."  He  was  seldom  averse  to  sacri- 
ficing the  rights  of  the  individual  States  to  the  claim 
of  the  central  authority.     He  favored  consolidation 


,      *  Last  remarks  on  Foote's  Resolution,  and  Speech  in  Senate, 
13th  Feb.  1833.     Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  343,  et  seq.;  448,  et  seq. 


200  DANIEL  WEBSTEK. 

of  power,  while  the  South  Carolinians  and  others 
preferred  local  self-government.  It  was  no  doctrine 
of  his  "that  unconstitutional  laws  bind  the  people  ;" 
but  it  was  his  doctrine  that  such  laws  bind  the  peo- 
ple until  the  Supreme  Court  declares  them  uncon- 
stitutional; thus  making,  not  the  Constitution,  but 
the  discretion  of  the  rulers,  the  measure  of  its 
powers  I 

It  is  customary  at  the  North  to  think  Mr.  Webster 
wholly  in  the  right,  and  South  Carolina  wholly  in 
the  wrong,  on  the  question  of  nullification ;  but  it 
should  be  remembered,  that  some  of  the  ablest  men 
whom  the  South  ever  sent  to  Washington  thought 
otherwise.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  the 
speech  of  IVIr.  Hayne :  he  was  alarmed  at  the  in- 
crease of  the  central  power,  which  seemed  to  invade 
the  rights  of  the  States.  Mr.  Calhoun  defended  the 
Carolinian  id^a ;  *  and  Calhoun  was  a  man  of  great 
mind,  a  sagacious  man,  a  man  of  unimpeachable 
integrity  in  private.f  Mr.  Clay  was  certainly  a  man 
of  very  large  intellect,  wise  and  subtle  and  far-sighted. 
But,  in  1833,  he  introduced  his  "  Compromise  Meas- 


*  See  Mr.  Calhoun's  Disquisition  on  Government,  and  his  Dis- 
course on  the  Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United  States, 
in  his  Works,  vol.  i.  (Charleston,  1851)  ;  Life  and  Speeches 
(New  York,  1843),  No.  iii.-vl.  See,  too.  Life  and  Speeches,  No. 
ix.,  xix.,  xxii. 

f  A  more  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  character  and  con- 
duct of  Mr.  Calhoun,  makes  it  doubtful  to  me  that  he  deserves 
this  threefold  praise. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  201 

lire,"  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  enforcing  the  opin- 
ions of  Mr.  Webster. 

I  must  pass  over  many  things  in  Mr.  Webster's 
congressional  career. 

While  Secretary  of  State,  he  performed  the  chief 
act  of  his  public  life,  —  the  one  deed  on  whicii  his 
reputation  as  a  political  administrator  seems  now  to 
settle  down  and  rest.  He  negotiated  the  Treaty  of 
Washington  in  1842.  The  matter  was  difficult,  the 
claims  intricate ;  there  were  four  parties  to  pacify, 
—  England,  the  United  States,  Massachusetts,  and 
Maine.  The  quarrel  was  almost  sixty  years  old. 
Many  political  doctors  had  laid  their  hands  on  the 
immedicable  wound,  which  only  smarted  sorer  under 
their  touch.  The  British  Government  sent  over  a 
minister  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the  American 
Secretary.  The  two  eminent  statesmen  settled  the 
difficulty.  It  has  been  said  that  no  other  man  in 
America  could  have  done  so  well,  and  drawn  the 
thunder  out  of  the  gathered  cloud.  Perhaps  I  am 
no  judge  of  that ;  yet  I  do  not  see  why  any  sensible 
and  honest  man  could  not  have  done  the  work.  You 
all  remember  the  anxiety  of  America  and  of  Eng- 
land ;  the  apprehension  of  war ;  and  the  delight 
when  these  two  countries  shook  hands,  as  the  work 
was  done.  Then  we  all  felt  that  there  was  only  one 
English  nation,  —  the  English  Briton  and  the  Eng- 
lish American ;   that  Webster  and  Ashburton  were 


202  DANIEL   ■WEBSTER. 

fellow-cftizens,  yea,  brothers  of  the  same  great  An- 
glo-Saxon tribe. 

His  letters  on  the  Right  of  Search,  and  the  British 
claim  to  impress  seamen  from  American  ships, 
would  have  done  honor  to  any  statesman  in  the 
world.*  He  refused  to  England  the  right  to  visit 
and  search  our  ships,  on  the  plea  of  their  being  en- 
gaged in  the  slave-trade.  Some  of  my  anti-slavery 
brethren  have  censured  him  for  this.  I  always 
thought  he  was  right  in  the  matter.  But,  on  the 
other  side,  his  celebrated  letter  to  Lord  Ashburton, 
in  the  Creole  case,  seems  to  me  most  eminently  un- 
just, false  in  law,  and  wicked  in  morality.f  It  is  the 
greatest  stain  on  that  negotiation ;  and  it  is  wonder- 
ful to  me,  that,  in  1846,  Mr.  Webster  could  himself 
declare  he  thought  that  letter  was  the  "most  tri- 
umphant production  "  from  his  pen  in  aU  the  corre- 
spondence. 

But  let  us  pause  a  moment,  and  see  how  much 
praise  is  reaUy  due  to  JVlr.  Webster  for  negotiating 
the  treaty.  I  limit  my  remarks  to  the  north-eastern 
boundary.  The  main  question  was,  Where  is  the 
north-west  angle  of  Nova  Scotia,  mentioned  in  the 
treaty  of  1783  ?  for  a  line,  drawn  due  north  from  the 
source  of  the  river  St.  Croix  to  the  summit  of  the 
highlands  dividing  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  from 
those  of  the  St.  LawTence,  was  to  terminate  at  that 

*  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  318,  et  seq.  f  Id.  p.  303,  et  seq. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  203 

point.  The  American  claim  was  most  abundantly- 
substantiated  ;  but  it  left  the  British  Provinces,  New 
Brunswick  and  Canada,  in  an  embarrassed  position. 
No  military  road  could  be  maintained  between  them ; 
and,  besides,  the  American  border  came  very  near 
to  Quebec.  Accordingly,  the  British  Government, 
on  the  flimsiest  pretext,  refused  to  draw  the  lines  and 
erect  the  monuments  contemplated  by  the  treaty  of 
1794 ;  perverted  the  language  of  the  treaty  of  1783, 
which  was  too  plain  to  be  misunderstood ;  and  grad- 
ually extended  its  claim  further  and  further  to  the 
west.  By  the  treaty  of  Ghent  (1814),  it  was  pro- 
vided that  certain  questions  should  be  left  out  to  a 
friendly  power  for  arbitration.  In  1827,  this  matter 
was  referred  to  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  :  he  was 
to  determine  where  the  line  of  the  treaty  ran.  He 
did  not  determine  that  question,  but,  in  1831,  pro- 
posed a  new  conventional  line.  His  award  ceded  to 
the  British  about  4,119  square  miles  of  land  in 
Maine.  The  English  assented  to  it ;  but  the  Amer- 
icans refused  to  accept  the  award,  Mr.  "Webster  op- 
posing it.  He  was  entirely  convinced  that  the 
American  claim  was  just  and  sound,  and  the  Amer- 
ican interpretation  of  the  treaty  of  1783  the  only- 
correct  one.  On  a  memorable  occasion,  in  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Webster  declared  — 
"  that  Great  Britain  ought  forthwith  to  be  told,  that, 
unless  she  would  agree  to  settle  the  question  by  the 
4th  of  July  next,  according  to  the  treaty  of  1783, 


204  DAXIEL   WEBSTER. 

we  would  then  take  possession  of  that  line,  and  let 
her  drive  us  off  if  she  can! "  * 

The  day  before,  and  in  all  soberness,  he  declared 
that  he  "  never  entertained  a  doubt  that  the  right  to 
this  disputed  territory  was  in  the  United  States." 
This  was  "  perfectly  clear,  —  so  clear  that  the  con- 
troversy never  seemed  to  him  hardly  to  reach  to  the 
dignity  of  a  debatable  question." 

But,  in  1842,  the  British  minister  came  to  nego- 
tiate a  treaty.  Maine  and  Massachusetts  were  asked 
to  appoint  commissioners  to  help  in  the  matter;  for 
it  seemed  determined  on  that  those  States  were  to 
relinquish  some  territory  to  which  they  had  a  lawful 
claim.  Those  States  could  not  convey  the  territory 
to  England,  but  might  authorize  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment to  make  the  transfer.  The  treaty  was  made, 
and  accepted  by  Maine  and  Massachusetts.  But  it 
ceded  to  Great  Britain  all  the  land  which  the  award 
had  given,  and  893  square  miles  in  addition.  Thus 
the  treaty  conveyed  to  Great  Britain  more  than  five 
thousand  square  miles — upwards  of  three  million 
acres  —  of  American  territory,  to  which,  by  the  terms 
of  the  treaty,  the  American  title  was  perfectly  good. 
Rouse's  Point  was  ceded  to  the  United  States,-  with 
a  narrow  strip  of  land  on  the  north  of  Vermont  and 
New   Hampshire ;    but  the   king's   award   gave  us 


*  Evening  Debate  of  Senate,  Feb.  27,  1839  (iu  "Boston  At- 
las" of  March  1). 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  205 

Rouse's  Point  at  less  cost.  The  rights  which  the 
Americans  gained  with  the  navigation  of  a  part  of 
the  St.  John's  River  were  only  a  fair  exchange  for 
the  similar  right  conceded  to  the  British.  As  a 
compensation  to  Maine  and  Massachusetts  for  the 
loss  of  the  land  and  the  jurisdiction  over  it,  the 
United  States  paid  those  two  States  $300,000,  and 
indemnified  Maine  for  the  expenses  occasioned  by 
the  troubles  which  had  grown  out  of  the  contested 
claims, —  about  $300,000  more.  Great  Britain 
gained  all  that  was  essential  to  the  welfare  of  her 
colonies.  All  her  communications,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, were  forever  placed  beyond  hostile  reach ;  and 
all  the  military  positions  claimed  by  America,  with 
the  exception  of  Rouse's  Point,  were  for  ever 
secured  to  Great  Britain !  What  did  England 
concede  ?  The  British  government  still  keeps  (in 
secret)  the  identical  map  used  by  the  English  and 
American  Commissioners  who  negotiated  the  treaty 
of  1783 :  the  Boundary  line  is  drawn  on  it,  in  red 
ink,  with  a  pen,  exactly  where  the  Americans  had 
always  claimed  that  the  Treaty  required  it  to  be ! 

It  was  fortunate  that  the  controversy  was  settled  ; 
it  was  wise  in  America  to  be  liberal.  A  tract,  of 
wild  land,  though  half  as  large  as  Massachusetts,  is 
nothing  compared  to  a  war.  It  is  as  well  for  man- 
kind that  the  jurisdiction  over  that  spot  belongs  to 
the  Lion  of  England  as  to  the  Eagle  of  America. 
But  I  fear  a  man  who  makes  such  a  bargain  is  not 

VOL.  I.  18 


206  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

entitled  to  any  great  glory  among  diplomatists.  In 
1832,  Maine  refused  to  accept  the  award  of  the  king, 
even  when  the  Federal  Government  offered  her  a 
million  acres  of  good  land  in  Michigan,  of  her  own 
selection,  valued  at  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars. 
Had  it  been  a  question  of  the  south-western  boun- 
dary, and  not  the  north-eastern,  Mexico  would  have 
had  an  answer  ta  her  claim  very  different  from  that 
which  Ensfland  received.  Mr.  Webster  was  deter- 
mined  on  negotiating  tjie  treaty  at  all  hazards,  and 
was  not  very  courteous  to  those  who  expostulated 
and  stood  out  for  the  just  rights  of  Maine  and  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  nay,  he  was  indignant  at  the  presump- 
tion of  these  States  asking  for  compensation  when 
their  land  was  ceded  away  !  * 

*  For  the  facts  of  this  controversy,  see,  I.  The  Definitive  Treaty 
of  Peace,  etc.  1783.  Public  Statutes  of  the  United  States  of 
America  (Boston,  18-46),  vol.  viii.  p.  80.  Treaty  of  Amity,  Com- 
merce, and  Navigation,  etc.  1794,  ibid.  p.  116.  Treaty  of  Peace 
and  Amity,  1814,  ibid.  p.  218.  — 11.  Act  of  Twentieth  Congress, 
Stat.  i.  chap.  xxx.  id.  vol.  iv.  p.  262.  Act  of  Twenty-sixth  Con- 
gress, Stat.  i.  chap.  Hi.  ibid.  vol.  v.  p.  402 ;  and  stat.  ii.  chap.  ii.  p. 
413.  III.  Statement,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
Case  referred  in  pursuance  of  the  Convention  of  29th  September, 
1827,  between  the  said  States  and  Great  Britain,  to  his  Majesty 
the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  for  his  decision  thereon  (Washing- 
ton, 1829).  North  American  Boundary,  A.:  Correspondence  re- 
lating to  the  Boundary,  etc.  etc.  (London,  1838).  North  Ameri- 
can Boundary,  part  I. :  Correspondence  relating  to  the  Boundary, 
etc.  (London,  1840).  The  Right  of  the  United  States  of  America 
to  the  North-eastern  Boundary  claimed  by  them,  etc.  etc.,  by 
Albert  Gallatin,  etc.  (New  York,  1840).  Documents  of  the 
Senate  of  ]\Iassachusetts,  1839,  No.  45 ;  1841,  No.  9.    Documents 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  207 

Was  there  any  real  danger  of  a  war  ?  If  Eng- 
land had  claimed  clear  down  to  the  Connecticut,  I 
think  the  Southern  masters  of  the  North  would  have 
given  up  Bunker  Hill  and  Plymouth  Rock,  rather 
than  risk  to  the  chances  of  a  British  war  the  twelve 
hundred  million  dollars  invested  in  slaves.  Men 
who  live  in  straw  houses  think  twice  before  they 
scatter  firebrands  abroad.  England  knew  well  with 
whom  she  had  to  deal,  and  authorized  her  repre- 
sentative to  treat  only  for  a  "  conventional  line,"  not 
to  accept  the  line  of  the  treaty !  Mr.  Webster  suc- 
ceeded in  negotiating,  because  he  gave  up  more 
American  territory  than  any  one  would  yield  before, 
—  more  than  the  king  of  the  Netherlands  had  pro- 
posed. Still,  we  may  all  rejoice  in  the  settlement  of 
the  question  ;  and  if  Great  Britain  had  admitted  our 
claim  by  the  plain  terms  of  the  treaty,  and  then 
asked  for  the  land  so  valuable  and  necessary  to  her, 
who  in  New  England  would  have  found  fault  ?  * 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  Mr.  Webster 
came  to  Boston.  You  remember  his  speech  in  1842, 
in  Faneuil  Hall.     He  was  then  sixty  years  old.     He 


of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 1842,  No.  44.  —  IV.  Congressional  Globe,  etc.  (Wash- 
ington, 1843),  vol.  xii.  and  Appendix.  Mr.  Webster's  Defence 
of  the  Treaty;  Works,  yoI.  v.  p.  18,  ct  seq. 

*  The  time  has  not  yet  come  when  the  public  can  completely 
understand  this  negotiation,  and  I  pass  over  some  things  which  it 
is  not  now  prudent  to  relate. 


208  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

had  done  the  great  deed  of  his  life.  He  still  held  a 
high  station.  He  scorned,  or  affected  to  scorn,  the 
littleness  of  party  and  its  narrow  platform,  and 
claimed  to  represent  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Everybody  knew  the  importance  of  his  speech.  I 
counted  sixteen  reporters  of  the  New  England  and 
Northern  press  at  that  meeting.  It  was  a  proud  day 
for  him,  and  also  a  stormy  day.  Other  than  friends 
were  about  him.  It  was  thought  that  he  had  just 
scattered  the  thunder  which  impended  over  the 
nation.  But  a  sullen  cloud  still  hung  over  his  own 
expectations  of  the  Presidency.  He  thundered  his 
eloquence  into  that  cloud,  —  the  great  ground-light- 
ning of  his  Olympian  power. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  his  relation  to  Slavery. 
Up  to  1850,  with  occasional  fluctuations,  much  of 
his  conduct  had  been  just  and  honorable.  As  a 
private  citizen,  in  1819,  he  opposed  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  At  the  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Bos- 
ton to  prevent  that  iniquity,  he  said,  "  We  are  acting 
for  unborn  millions,  who  lie  along  before  us  in  the 
track  of  time."  *  The  extension  of  slavery  would  de- 
moralize the  people,  and  endanger  the  welfare  of  the 
nation.  "  Nor  can  the  laws  derive  support  from  the 
manners  of  the  people,  if  the  power  of  moral  senti- 
ment   be  weakened    by   enjoying,   under   the    per- 


*  Reported  in  the  "  Columbian  Centinel"  for  December   8, 
1819,  not  contained  in  tlie  edition  of  his  "Works  ! 


DANIEL   AYEBSTER.  209 

mission  of  the  government,  great  facilities  to  commit 
offences."  * 

A  few  months  after  the  deed  was  done,  on  Fore- 
fathers' Day  in  1820,  standing  on  Plymouth  Rock,  he 
could  say :  — 

"  I  deem  it  my  duty,  on  this  occasion,  to  suggest,  that  the  land 
is  not  yet  wholly  free  from  the  contamination  of  a  traffic,  at  which 
every  feeling  of  humanity  must  for  ever  revolt,  —  I  mean  the  Af- 
rican slave-trade.  Neither  public  sentiment  nor  the  law  has 
hitherto  been  able  entirely  to  put  an  end  to  this  odious  and  abom- 
inable trade.  At  the  moment  when  God  in  his  mercy  has  blessed 
the  Christian  world  with  a  universal  peace,  there  is  reason  to  fear, 
that,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  Christian  name  and  chai'acter,  new 
efforts  are  making  for  the  extension  of  this  trade  by  subjects  and 
citizens  of  Christian  States,  in  whose  hearts  there  dwell  no  senti- 
ments of  humanity  or  of  justice,  and  over  whom  neither  the  fear 
of  God  nor  the  fear  of  man  exercises  a  control.  In  the  sight  of 
our  law,  the  African  slave-trader  is  a  pirate  and  a  felon ;  and,  in 
the  sight  of  Heaven,  an  offender  far  beyond  the  ordinary  depth  of 
human  guilt.  There  is  no  brighter  page  of  our  history  than  that 
which  records  the  measures  which  have  been  adopted  by  the  Gov- 
ernment at  an  early  day,  and  at  different  times  since,  for  the  sup- 
pression of  this  traffic  ;  and  I  would  call  on  all  the  true  sons  of 
New  England  to  cooperate  with  the  laws  of  man  and  the  justice  of 
Heaven.  If  there  be,  within  the  extent  of  our  knowledge  or  influ- 
ence, any  participation  in  this  traffic,  let  us  pledge  ourselves  here, 
upon  the  rock  of  Plymouth,  to  extirpate  and  destroy  it.  It  is  not 
fit  that  the  land  of  the  Pilgrims  should  bear  the  shame  longer.  I 
hear  the  sound  of  the  hammer ;  I  see  the  smoke  of  the  furnaces 
where  manacles  and  fetters  are  still  forged  for  human  limbs.     I 

*  Memorial  to  Congress,  ut  supra ;  also  omitted  in  Works. 

18* 


210  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

see  tbe  visages  of  tliose  who,  by  stealth  and  at  midnight,  labor  in 
this  work  of  hell,  foul  and  dark,  as  may  become  the  artificers  of 
such  instruments  of  misery  and  torture.  Let  that  spot  be  purified, 
or  let  it  cease  to  be  of  New  England.  Let  it  be  purified,  or  let  it 
be  set  aside  from  the  Christian  world.  Let  it  be  put  out  of  the 
circle  of  human  sympathies  and  human  regards ;  and  let  ciA'ilized 
man  henceforth  have  no  communion  with  it."  * 

Li  1830,  he  praised  Nathan  Dane  for  the  Ordi- 
nance which  makes  the  difference  between  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  and  honorably  vindicated  that  man  who 
lived  "too  near  the  north  star"  for  Southern  eyes  to 
see.  "  I  regard  domestic  slavery,"  said  Mr.  Webster 
to  Mr.  Hayne,  "  as  one  of  the  greatest  evils,  both 
moral  and  political."! 

In  1837,  at  Niblo's  Garden,  he  avowed  his  entire 
unwilUngness  to  do  any  thing  which  should  extend 
the  slavery  of  the  African  race  on  this  continent. 
He  said :  — 

"  On  the  general  question  of  slavery,  a  great  portion  of  the 
community  is  already  strongly  excited.  The  subject  has  not  only 
attracted  attention  as  a  question  of  politics,  but  it  has  struck  a 
far  deeper-toned  chord.  It  has  arrested  the  religious  feeling  of 
the  country  ;  it 'has  taken  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men. 
He  is  a  rash  man,  indeed,  and  little  conversant  with  human 
nature,  —  and  especially  has  he  a  very  erroneous  estimate  of  the 
character  of  the  people  of  this  country,  —  who  supposes  that  a 
feeling  of  this  kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised.  It  will  assur- 
edly cause  itself  to  be  respected.     It  may  be  reasoned  with ;  it 


*  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  45,  et  seq. 

f  2d.,  vol.  iii.  p.  279  ;  see  also  p.  263,  et  seq. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  211 

may  be  made  willing — I  believe  it  is  entirely  ■willing  —  to  fulfil 
all  existing  engagements,  and  all  existing  duties ;  to  uphold  and 
defend  the  Constitution  as  it  is  established,  with  whatever  regrets 
about  some  provisions  which  it  does  actually  contain.  But  to 
coerce  it  into  silence,  to  restrain  its  free  expression,  to  seek  to 
compress  and  confine  it,  warm  as  it  is,  and  more  heated  as  such 
endeavors  would  inevitably  render  it,  —  should  this  be  attempted, 
I  know  nothing,  even  in  the  Constitution  or  in  the  Union  itself, 
which  would  not  be  endangered  by  the  explosion  which  might 
follow."  * 

He  always  declared  that  slavery  was  a  local  mat- 
ter of  the  South  ;  sectional,  not  national.  In  1830 
he  took  the  ground  that  the  general  government  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  In  1840,  standing  "  beneath 
an  October  sun  "  at  Richmond,  he  declared  again 
that  there  was  no  power,  direct  or  indirect,  in  Con- 
gress or  the  general  government,  to  interfere  in  the 
smallest  degree  with  the  "  institutions "  of  the 
South,  f 

At  first  he  opposed  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  he 
warned  men  against  it  in  1837.  He  went  so  far  as 
to  declare :  — 

"  I  do  say  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  would  tend  to  prolong 
the  duration  and  increase  the  extent  of  African  slavery  on  this 
continent.  I  have  long  held  that  opinion,  and  I  would  not  now 
suppress  it  for  any  consideration  on  earth !  and  because  it  does 
increase  the  evils  of  slavery,  because  it  will  increase  the  number 
of  slaves  and  prolong  the  duration  of  their  bondage,  —  because  it 

*  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  35G-7.  f  ^'^•i  vol.  "•  p-  93,  et  seq. 


212  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

does  all  this,  I  oppose  it  witliout  condition  and  -without  qualifica- 
tion, at  this  time  and  all  times,  hoio  and  foreve?:"  * 

He  prepared  some  portions  of  the  Address  of  the 
Massachusetts  Anti-Texas  Convention  in  1845. 
But,  as  some  of  the  leading  Whigs  of  the  North 
opposed  that  meeting  and  favored  annexation,  he 
did  not  appear  at  the  Convention,  but  went  off  to 
New  York !  In  1845  he  voted  against  annexation. 
He  said  that  he  had  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  steadily, 
uniformly,  and  zealously  to  oppose  it.  He  did  not 
wish  America  to  be  possessed  by  the  spirit  of 
aggrandizement.  He  objected  to  annexation  princi- 
pally because  Texas  was  a  Slave  State,  f  Here  he 
stood  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  but,  alas !  did  too 
little  to  oppose  that  annexation.  Against  him  were 
Mr.  Calhoun,  the  South,  almost  all  the  Democratic 
party  of  the  North,  —  Mr.  Van  Buren  losing  his 
nomination  on  account  of  his  hostility  to  new 
slave-soil ;  and  many  of  the  capitalists  of  the  North 
wished  a  thing  that  Mr.  Webster  wanted  not. 

He  objected  to  the  Constitution  of  Texas.  Why  ? 
Because  it  tied  up  the  hands  of  the  Legislature 
against  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He  said  so  on 
Forefathers'  Day,  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock. 
Then  he  could  not  forget  his  own  proud  words, 
uttered  a  quarter  of  a  century  before.     I   thought 

*  Works,  vol.  1,  p.  270.  f  Id.,  vol.  ii.  p.  552,  et  seq. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  213 

him  honest  then ;  I  think  so  still.  But  he  said  that 
New  England  might  have  prevented  annexation ; 
that  Massachusetts  might  have  prevented  annexa- 
tion, only  "  she  could  not  be  roused."  If  he  had 
labored  then  for  freedom  with  as  much  vigor  and 
earnestness  as  he  wrought  for  slavery  in  1850  and 
1851,  Massachusetts  would  have  been  roused  ;  New 
England  would  have  risen  as  a  single  man ;  and  an- 
nexation of  new  slave-soil  have  been  put  off  till  the 
Greek  Kalends,  a  day  beyond  eternity.  Yet  he  did 
some  service  in  this  work. 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  Mexican  war,  the  north- 
ern men  sought  to  pass  a  law  prohibiting  slavery  in 
the  new  territory  gained  from  Mexico.  The  cele- 
brated "  Wilmot  Proviso  "  came  up.  Mr.  Webster 
also  wished  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  new  territory. 
In  March,  1847,  he  presented  to  Congress  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  against  the 
extension  of  slavery,  —  which  had  been  passed 
unanimously,  —  and  he  "  indorsed  them  all." 

"  I  thank  her  for  It,  and  am  proud  of  her ;  for  she  has  de- 
nounced the  whole  object  for  which  our  armies  are  now  travers- 
ing the  mountains  of  Mexico."  "  If  any  thing  is  certain,  it  is 
that  the  sentiment  of  the  whole  North  is  utterly  opposed  to  the 
acquisition  of  territory  to  be  formed  into  new  Slave-holding 
States."  * 

At  the  Whig  Convention  at  Springfield,  in  1847, 
*  "  Congressional  Globe,"  March,  1847,  p.  555. 


214  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

he  maintained  that  the  Wihnot   Proviso  was  his 
» thunder." 

"  Did  I  not  commit  myself  in  1837  to  the  whole  doctrine,  fully, 
entirely  ?  "  "I  cannot  quite  consent  that  more  recent  discoverers 
should  claim  the  merit  and  take  out  a  patent.  "We  are  to  use  the 
first  and  the  last  and  every  occasion  which  offers  to  oppose  the 
extension  of  slave  power."  * 

On  the  10th  of  August,  1848,  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  he  said:  — 

"  M}'  opposition  to  the  increase  of  slavery  in  this  countrj',  or 
to  the  increase  of  slave-representation,  is  general  and  universal. 
It  has  no  reference  to  the  lines  of  latitude  or  points  of  the  com- 
pass. I  shall  oppose  all  such  extension  at  all  times  and  under  all 
circumstances,  even  against  all  inducements,  against  all  supposed 
limitations  of  great  interests,  against  all  combinations,  against  all 
compromises." 

He  sought  to  gain  the  support  of  the  Free-Soilers 
in  Massachusetts,  and  encouraged  their  enterprise. 
Even  when  he  denounced  the  nomination  of  Gen- 
eral Taylor  as  "  not  fit  to  be  made,"  he  declared 
that  he  could  stand  on  the  Buffalo  Platform ;  its 
Anti- Slavery  planks  were  good  sound  Whig  timber ; 
he  himself  had  had  some  agency  in  getting  them 
out,  and  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  a  new  organiza- 
tion. He  had  never  voted  for  the  admission  of  a 
Slave  State  into  the  Union ! 

But,  alas  I  all  this  was  to  pass  away.     "Was   he 

*  Remarks  in  Convention  at  Springfield,  Sept.  10,  1847 ;  re- 
ported in  "  Boston  Daily  Advertiser." 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  215 

sincere  in  his  opposition  to  tlie  extension  of  slavery  ? 
I  always  thought  so.     I  think  so  still. 

Yet,  after  all,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850,  he  could 
make  that  sj)eech  —  you  know  it  too  well.  He  re- 
fused to  exclude  slavery  by  law  from  California  and 
New  Mexico.  It  would  "  irritate  "  the  South,  would 
"  reenact  the  law  of  God."  He  declared  Congress 
was  bound  to  make  four  new  Slave  States  out  of 
Texas ;  to  allow  all  the  territory  below  36°  30'  to 
become  Slave  States  ;  he  volunteered  to  give  Texas 
fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  land  for  slave-territory, 
and ,  ten  millions  of  dollars ;  would  refund  to  Vir- 
ginia two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  derived  from 
the  sale  of  the  public  lands,  to  expatriate  the  free 
colored  people  from  her  soil ;  he  would  support  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  with  all  its  amendments,  "  with 
all  its  provisions,"  "to  the  fullest  extent." 

You  know  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  too  well.  It  is 
bad  enough  now ;  but  when  he  first  volunteered  his 
support  thereto,  it  was  far  worse,  for  then  every  one 
of  the  seventeen  thousand  postmasters  of  America 
might  be  a  legal  kidnapper  by  that  Bill.*  He  pledged 
our  own  Massachusetts  to  support  it,  and  that  "  with 
alacrity." 

My  friends,  you  all  know  the  speech  of  the  7th  of 
March :  -you  remember  how  men  felt  when  the  tele- 

*  See  Speeches,  Addresses,  etc.,  of  Theodore  Parker,  vol.  ii. 
p.  160,  et  seq. 


216  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

graph  brought  the  first  news,  they  thought  there 
must  be  some  mistake !  They  could  not  beheve  the 
lightning.  You  recollect  how  the  Whig  party,  and 
the  Democratic  party,  and  the  newspapers,  treated 
the  report.  When  the  speech  came  in  full,  you  know 
the  effect.  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  men  of 
the  State,  then  in  high  office,  declared  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster "  seemed  inspired  by  fhe  devil  to  the  extent  of 
his  intellect."  You  know  the  indignation  men  felt, 
the  sorrow  and  anguish.  I  think  not  a  hundred 
prominent  men  in  all  New  England  acceded  to  the 
speech.  But  such  was  the  power  of  that  gigantic 
understanding,  that,  eighteen  days  after  his  speech, 
nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  men  of  Boston  sent 
him  a  letter,  telling  him  that  he  had  pointed  out 
"  the  path  of  duty,  convinced  the  understanding  and 
touched  the  conscience  of  a  nation ; "  and  they  ex- 
pressed to  him  their  "  entire  concurrence  in  the  sen- 
timents of  that  speech,"  and  their  "  heartfelt  thanks 
for  the  inestimable  aid  it  afforded  to  the  preservation" 
of  the  Union. 

You  remember  the  return  of  Mr.  Webster  to  Bos- 
ton ;  the  speech  at  the  Revere  House ;  his  word  that 
"  discussion  "  on  the  subject  of  slavery  must  "  in 
some  way  be  suppressed ; "  you  remember  the  "  dis- 
agreeable duty ; "  the  question  if  JNIassachusetts 
"will  be  just  against  temptation;"  whether  "she 
will  conquer  her  prejudices  "  in  favor  of  the  trial  by 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  217 

jury,  of  the  unalienable  rights  of  man,  in  favor  of 
the  Christian  religion,  and 

"  Those  thoughts  'which  ■wander  through  eternity." 

You  remember  the  agony  of  our  colored  men. 
The  Son  of  Man  came  to  Jerusalem  to  seek  and 
to  save  that  which  was  lost ;  but  Daniel  Webster 
came  to  Boston  to  crush  the  poorest  and  most  lost 
of  men  into  the  ground  with  the  hoof  of  American 
power. 

At  the  moment  of  making  that  speech,  Mr.  Web- 
ster was  a  member  of  a  French  Abolition  Society, 
which  has  for  its  object  to  protect,  enlighten,  and 
emancipate  the  African  race  !  * 

You  all  know  what  followed.  The  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  passed.  It  was  enforced.  You  remember  the 
consternation  of  the  colored  people  in  Boston,  New 
York,  Buffalo,  Philadelphia,  —  all  over  the  land. 
You  recollect  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Webster  at  Buf- 
falo, Syracuse,  and  Albany,  —  his  industry  never 
equalled  before ;  his  violence,  his  indignation,  his  de- 
nunciations. You  remember  the  threat  at  Syracuse, 
that  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  next  Anti-slavery  Con- 
vention should  a  fugitive  slave  be  seized.  Yom 
remember  the  scorn  that  he  poured  out  on  men  who 

*  Institut  d'Afrique  pour  I'Abolition  de  la  Traits  et  do  I'Escla- 
vage.  Art.  ii.  "II  a  pour  but  egalement  de  proteger^  d'e'clairer 
et  d'cmanciper  la  race  Africaine." 

VOL.  I.  19 


218  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

pledged  "  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor,"  for  the  welfare  of  men.* 

You  remember  the  letters  to  Mr.  Webster  from 
Newburyport,  Kennebec,  Medford,  and  his  "  Neigh- 
bors in  New  Hampshire."  You  have  not  forgotten 
the  "  Union  Meetings :  "  "  Blue-light  Federalists," 
and  "  Genuine  Democrats  dyed  in  the  wool,"  united 
into  one  phalanx  of  Hunkerism  and  became  his 
"retainers,"  lay  and  clerical,  —  the  laymen  maintain- 
ing that  his  political  opinions  were  an  "  amendment 
to  the  Constitution ; "  and  the  clergymen,  that  his 
public  and  private  practice  was  "  one  of  the  evidences 
of  Christianity."  You  remember  the  sermons  of 
Doctors  of  Divinity,  proving  that  slavery  was  Chris- 
tian, good  Old  Testament  Christian,  at  the  very  least. 
You  do  not  forget  the  offer  of  a  man  to  deliver  up  his 
own  mother.  Andover  went  for  kidnapping.  The 
loftiest  pulpits,  —  I  mean  those  highest  bottomed  on 
the  dollar,  —  they  went  also  for  kidnapping.  There 
arose  a  shout  against  the  fugitive  from  the  metropoli- 
tan pulpits,  "  Away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the  earth  I 
—  Kidnap  him,  kidnap  him  ! "  And  when  we  said, 
mildly  remonstrating,  "  Why,  what  evil  has  the  poor 
black  man  done  ?  "  the  answer  was,  —  "  We  have  a 
law,  and  by  that  law  he  ought  to  be  a  slave  I " 

*  The  speeches  referred  to  have  not  all  been  collected  in  the 
"  Works."  See  some  of  them  in  Mr.  Webster's  "  Speeches  at 
BufFalo,  Syracuse,  and  Albany,  May,  1851."     Times  Office,  New 

York,  [1851]. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  219 

Yon  remember  the  first  kidnappers  which  came 
here  to  Boston.  Hughes  was  one  of  them,  an  ngly- 
looking  fellow,  that  went  back  to  die  in  a  street 
brawl  in  his  own  Georgia.  He  thirsted  for  the  blood 
of  Ellen  Craft.* 

You  remember  the  seizure  of  Shadrach,  and  his 
deliverance  out  of  his  fiery  furnace.  Of  course  it 
was  an  Angel  who  let  him  out;  for  that  court, — the 
kidnappers'  court,  —  thirsting  for  human  blood,  spite 
of  the  "  enlargement  of  the  testimony,"  after  six 
trials,  I  think,  has  not  found  a  man,  who,  at  noonday 
and  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  did  the  deed !  So  I 
suppose  it  was  an  Angel  who  did  the  deed,  and 
miracles  are  not  over  yet.  I  hope  you  have  not  for- 
gotten Caphart,  the  creature  which  "  whips  women," 
the  great  ally  of  the  Boston  kidnappers. 

You  remember  the  kidnapping  of  Thomas  Sims ; 
Faneuil  Hall  shut  against  the  convention  of  the 
people;  the  court  house  in  chains;  the  police  drilled 
in  the  square ;  soldiers  in  arms  ;  Faneuil  Hall  a  bar- 
rack. You  remember  Fast  Day,  1851, —  at  least  I 
do.f  You  remember  the  "Acorn"  and  Boston  on 
the  12th  of  April.  You  have  not  forgotten  the  dread- 
ful scenes  at  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Buffalo  ; 
the  tragedy  at  Christiana. 

You  have  not  forgotten  Mr.  Webster's  definition 
of   the    object   of   government.      In   1845,  standing 

*  See  above  p.  53,  of  this  volume. 

t  Sec  Speeches,  etc.,  vol.  ii.  p.  313,  et  seq.,  and  this  volume,  p. 
70,  et  seq. 


220  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

over  the  grave  of  Judge  Story,  he  said,  —  "  Justice 
is  the  great  interest  of  mankind ;  "  I  think  he  thought 
so  too  I  But  at  New  York,  on  the  18th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1850,  he  said,  —  "  The  great  object  of  govern- 
ment is  the  protection  of  property  at  home,  and  re- 
spect and  renown  abroad." 

He  went  to  Annapolis,  and  made  a  speech  com- 
plimenting a  series  of  ultra  resolutions  in  favor  of 
slavery  and  slave-catching.  One  of  the  resolutions 
made  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  the 
sole  bond  of  the  Union.  The  orator  of  Bunker  Hill 
replied :  — 

"  Gentlemen,  I  concur  in  the  sentiments  expressed  by  you  all  — 
and  I  thank  God  they  were  expressed  by  you  all  —  in  the  resolu- 
tions passed  here  on  the  10th  of  December.  And  allow  me  to 
say,  that  any  State,  North  or  South,  which  departs  one  iota  from 
the  sentiment  of  that  resolution,  is  disloyal  to  this  Union. 

"  Further,  —  so  far  as  any  act  of  that  sort  has  been  committed, 
—  SUCH  A  State  has  no  portion  of  my  regard.  /  do 
not  srjmpatldze  with  it.  I  rebuke  it  wherever  I  speak,  and  on  all 
occasions  where  it  is  proper  for  me  to  express  my  sentiments.  If 
there  are  States  —  and  I  am  afraid  there  are  —  which  have 
sought,  by  ingenious  contrivances  of  State  legislation,  to  thwart 
the  fair  exercise  and  fulfilment  of  the  laws  of  Congress  passed  to 
carry  into  effect  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution,  —  that 
State,  so  far,  is  entitled  to  no  regard  from  me. 
At  the  North  there  have  been  certainly  some  inti- 
mations IN  certain   States  of  such  a  policy. 

^^  I  hold  the  importance  of  maintaining  these  measures  to  be  of 
the  highest  character  and  nature,  every  one  of  them  out  and  out, 
and  through  and  through.    I  have  no  confidence  in  anybody  icho 


DAXIEL    WEBSTER.  221 

seeks  the  repeal,  in  amjhod/j  tcJio  ivishes  to  alter  or  modi///  these 
constitutional  provisions.  There  they  are.  Many  of  these  great 
measures  are  irrepealable.  The  settlement  with  Texas  is  as  irre- 
pealable  as  the  admission  of  California.  Other  important  objects 
of  legislation,  if  not  in  themselves  in  the  nature  of  grants,  and 
therefore  not  so  irrepealable,  are  just  as  important;  and  loe  are 
to  hear  no  imrleying  upon  if.  We  are  to  listen  to  no  modification 
or  qualification.  They  were  passed  in  conformity  with  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  ;  and  they  must  he  performed  and 
abided  by,  in  whatever  event,  and  at  whatever  cost." 

t 

Surrounded  by  the  Federalists  of  New  England, 
when  a  young  man,  fresh  in  Congress,  he  stood  out 
nobly  for  the  right  to  discuss  all  matters.  Every 
boy  knows  his  brave  words  by  heart :  — 

"Important  as  I  deem  it,  sir,  to  discuss, on  all  proper  occasions, 
the  policy  of  the  measures  at  present  pursued,  it  is  still  more  im- 
p)ortant  to  maintain  the  right  of  such  discussion  in  its  full  and  just 
extent.  Sentiments  lately  sprung  up,  and  now  growing  popular, 
render  it  necessary  to  be  explicit  on  this  point.  It  is  the  ancient 
and  constitutional  right  of  this  people  to  canvass  public  measures, 
and  the  merits  of  public  men.  It  is  a  homebred  right,  a  fireside 
privilege.  It  has  ever  been  enjoyed  in  every  house,  cottage,  and 
cabin  in  the  nation.  It  is  not  to  be  drawn  into  controversy.  It 
is  as  undoubted  as  the  right  of  breathing  the  air,  and  walking  on 
the  earth.  Belonging  to  private  life  as  a  right,  it  belongs  to  pub- 
lic life  as  a  duty;  and  it  is  the  last  duty  which  those  whose  repre- 
sentative I  am  shall  find  me  to  abandon.  This  high  constitutional 
privilege  I  shall  defend  and  exercise  within  this  house  and  with- 
out this  house,  and  in  all  places  ;  in  time  of  war,  in  time  of  peace, 
and  at  all  times. 

"  Living,  I  will  assert  it ;  dying,  I  will  assert  it ;  and  should  I 
leave  no  other  inheritance  to  my  children,  by  the  blessing  of  C4od 

19* 


222  DANIEL   WEBSTER, 

I  will  leave  them  the  inheritance  of  Free  Principles,  and  the  ex- 
ample of  a  manly,  independent,  and  constitutional  defence  of 
them." 

Then,  in  1850,  when  vast  questions,  so  intimately 
affecting  the  welfare  of  millions  of  men,  were  before 
the  country,  he  told  us  to  suppress  agitation  I 

"  Neither  you  nor  I  shall  see  the  legislation  of  the  country  pro- 
ceed in  the  old  harmonious  way,  until  the  discussions  in  Congress 
and  out  of  Congress  upon  the  subject  [of  slavery]  shall  be  in 
some  way  suppressed.  Take  that  truth  home  with  you,  and  take 
it  as  truth." 

"  I  shall  support  no  agitations  having  their  foundation  in  unreal 
and  ghostly  abstractions."  * 

The  opponents  of  Mr.  Webster,  contending  for 
the  freedom  of  all  Americans,  of  all  men,  appealed 
from  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  to  "  the  element  of  all 
laws,  out  of  which  they  are  derived,  to  the  end 
of  all  laws,  for  which  they  are  designed  and  in 
which  they  are  perfected."  How  did  he  resist  the 
appeal  ?  You  have  not  forgotten  the  speech  at 
Capron  Springs,  on  the  26th  of  June,  1851.  "  When 
nothing  else  will  answer,"  he  said,  "  they,"  the  abo- 
litionists, "invoke  'religion,'  and  speak  of  the 
'  higher  law ! '  "  He  of  the  granite  hills  of  New 
Hampshire,  looking  on  the  mountains  of  Virginia, 
blue  with  loftiness  and  distance,  said,  "  Gentlemen, 


*  Speech  at  the  Revere  House  in  Boston,  April  29,  1850,  in 
«  Daily  Advertiser  "  of  April  30. 


DANIEL   "WEBSTER.  223 

this  North  Mountain  is  high,  the  Blue  Ridge  higher 
still,  the  AUeghanies  higher  than  either,  and  yet  this 
'higher  law'  ranges  further  than  an  eagle's  flight 
above  the  highest  peaks  of  the  AUeghanies !  No 
common  vision  can  discern  it ;  no  common  and  un- 
sophisticated conscience  can  feel  it ;  the  hearing  of 
common  men  never  learns  its  high  behests ;  and, 
therefore,  one  would  think  it  is  not  a  safe  law  to  be 
acted  upon  in  matters  of  the  highest  practical  mo- 
ment. It  is  the  code,  however,  of  the  abolitionists 
of  the  North." 

This  speech  was  made  at  dinner.  The  next  "  sen- 
timent "  given  after  his  was  this  :  — 

^^  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  —  Upon  its  faithful  execution  de- 
pends the  perpetuity  of  the  Union." 

Mr.  Webster  made  a  speech  in  reply,  and  distinctly 
declared,  — 

"  You  of  the  South  have  as  much  right  to  secure  your  fugitive 
slaves,  as  the  North  has  to  any  of  its  rights  and  privileges  of  navi- 
gation and  commerce." 

Do  you  think  he  believed  that  ?  Daniel  Webster 
knew  better.  In  1844,  only  seven  years  before,  he 
had  said,  — 

"  What !  when  all  the  civilized  world  is  opposed  to  slavery ;  ' 
when  morality  denounces  it ;    when   Christianity  denounces  it ; 
when  every  thing  respected,  every  thing  good,  bears  one  united 
witness  against  it,  Is  It  for  America  —  America,  the  land  of  Wash- 


224  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

ington,  the  model  republic  of  the  -world  —  is  it  for  America  to 
come  to  its  assistance,  and  to  insist  that  the  maintenance  of  sla- 
very is  necessary  to  the  support  of  her  institutions  ?  " 

How  do  you  think  the  audience  answered  then  ? 
With  six  and  twenty  cheers.  It  was  in  Faneuil 
Hall.  jVIr.  Webster  said,  "  These  are  Whig  princi- 
ples ;  "  and,  with  these,  "  Faneuil  Hall  may  laugh  a 
siege  to  scorn."  That  speech  is  not  printed  in  his 
collection !  How  could  it  stand  side  by  side  with 
the  speech  of  the  7th  of  March  ? 

In  1846,  a  Whig  Convention  voted  to  do  its  possi- 
ble to  "  defeat  all  measures  calculated  to  uphold 
slavery,  and  promote  all  constitutional  measures  for 
its  overthrow  ;  "  to  "  oppose  any  further  addition  of 
Slave-holding  States  to  this  Union;"  and  to  have 
"free  institutions  for  all,  chains  and  fetters  for  none." 
At  that  time  Mr.  Webster  declared  he  had  a  heart 
which  beat  for  every  thing  favorable  to  the  progress 
of  human  liberty,  either  here  or  abroad  ;  then,  when 
in  "  the  dark  and  troubled  night "  he  saw  only  the 
Whig  party  as  his  Bethlehem  Star,  he  rejoiced  in 
"  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  power  to  resist  whatever 
threatens  to  extend  slavery."  *  Yet  after  New  York 
had  kidnapped  Christians,  and  with  civic  pomp  sent 
her  own  sons  into  slavery,  he  could  go  to  that  city 


*  Speech  at  Faneuil  Hall,  September  23,  1846,  reported  in  the 
"  Daily  Advertiser,"  September  24. 


DANIEL   AVEBSTER.  225 

and  say,  "  It  is  an  air  which  for  the  last  few  months 
I  love  to  inhale.  It  is  a  patriotic  atmosphere  :  con- 
stitutional breezes  fan  it  every  day."  * 

To  accomplish  a  bad  purpose,  he  resorted  to  mean 
artifice,  to  the  low  tricks  of  vulgar  adventurers  in 
politics.  He  used  the  same  weapons  once  wielded 
against  him,  —  misrepresentation,  denunciation,  in- 
vective.f  Like  his  old  enemy  of  New  Hampshire, 
he  carried  his  political  quarrel  into  private  life.  He 
cast  off  the  acquaintance  of  men  intimate  with  him 
for  twenty  or  thirty  years.  The  malignity  of  his 
conduct,  as  it  was  once  said  of  a  great  apostate,  J 
"was  hugely  aggravated  by  those  rare  abilities 
whereof  God  had  given  him  the  use."  Time  had 
not  in  America  bred  a  man  before  bold  enough  to 
consummate  such  aims  as  his.  In  this  New  Hamp- 
shire Strafford,  "  despotism  had  at  length  obtained 
an  instrument  with  mind  to  comprehend,  and  resolu- 
tion to  act  upon,  its  principles  in  their  length  and 
breadth ;  and  enough  of  his  purposes  were  effected 
by  him  to  enable  mankind  to  see  as  from  a  tower 
the  end  of  all." 

"What  was  the  design  of  all  this  ?  It  was  to  "  save 
the  Union."  Such  was  the  cry.  Was  the  Union  in 
danger  ?  Here  were  a  few  non-resistants  at  the 
North,  who  said,  We  will  have  "  no  union  with  slave- 

*  Speech  at  New  York, May  12,  1851,  in  "Boston  Atlas"  of 
May  14. 

t  See  above  p.  183-187.  %  Lord  Strafford. 


226  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

holders."  There  was  a  party  of  seceders  at  the 
South,  who  periodically  blustered  about  disunion. 
Could  these  men  bring  the  Union  into  peril  ?  Did 
Daniel  Webster  even  think  so  ?  I  shall  never  insult 
that  giant  intellect  by  the  thought.  He  knew  South 
Carolina,  he  knew  Georgia,  very  well.*  Mr.  Benton 
knew  of  no  "  distress,"  even  at  the  time  when  it  was 
alleged  that  the  nation  was  bleeding  at  "  five  gaping 
wounds,"  so  that  it  would  take  the  whole  Omnibus 
full  of  compromises  to  stanch  the  blood :  "  All  the 
political  distress  is  among  the  politicians."  f  I  think 
JVIr.  Webster  knew  there  was  no  danger  of  a  disso- 
lution of  the  Union.  But  here  is  a  proof  that  he 
knew  it.  In  1850,  on  the  22d  of  December,  he 
declared,  "  There  is  no  longer  imminent  danger  of 
the  dissolution  of  the  United  States.  We  shall  live, 
and  not  die."  But,  soon  after,  he  went  about  saving 
the  Union  again,  and  again,  and  again,  —  saved  it 
at  Buffalo,  Albany,  Syracuse,  at  Annapolis,  and  then 
at  Capron  Springs. 

I  say  there  was  no  real  danger ;  but  my  opinion  is 
a  mere  opinion,  and  nothing  more.  Look,  however, 
at  a  fact.  We  have  the  most  delicate  test  of  public 
opinion,  —  the  state  of  the  public  funds  ;  the  barom- 
eter which    indicates    any    change  in  the    political 


*  See  his  description  in  1830  of  the  process  and  conclusion  of 
nullification.    Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  337,  et  seq. 
f  Speech  in  Senate,  Sept.  10, 1850. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  227 

weather.  If  the  winds  blow  clown  the  Tiber,  Roman 
funds  fall.  Talk  of  war  between  France  and  Eng- 
land, the  stocks  go  down  at  Paris  and  London.  The 
foolish  talk  about  the  fisheries  last  summer  lowered 
American  stocks  in  the  market,  to  the  great  gain  of 
prudent  and  far-sighted  brokers,  who  knew  there  was 
no  danger.  But  all  this  time,  when  Mr.  Webster  was 
telling  us  the  ship  of  State  was  going  to  pieces, 
and  required  undergirding  by  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill,  and  needed  the  kidnapper's  hand  at  the  helm ; 
while  he  was  advising  Massachusetts  to  "  conquer 
her  prejudices  "  in  favor  of  the  unalienable  rights  of 
man;  while  he  was  denouncing  the  friends  of  free- 
dom, and  calling  on  us  to  throw  over  to  Texas — that 
monster  of  the  deep  which  threatened  to  devour  the 
ship  of  State  —  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of  terri- 
tory, and  ten  millions  of  dollars ;  and  to  the  other 
monster  of  secession  to  cast  over  the  trial  by  jury, 
the  dearest  principles  of  the  Constitution,  of  man- 
hood, of  justice,  and  of  religion,  "those  thoughts 
that  wander  through  eternity;"  while  he  himself 
revoked  the  noblest  words  of  his  whole  life,  casting 
over  his  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  his  respect 
for  State  rights,  for  the  common  law,  his  own 
morality,  his  own  religion,  and  his  own  God,  —  the 
funds  of  the  United  States  did  not  go  down  one  mill ! 
You  asked  the  capitalist,  "  Is  the  Union  in  danger?" 
He  answered,  "  O  yes !  it  is  in  the  greatest  peril." 
"  Then  will  you  sell  me   your   stocks   lower    than 


228  DAXIEL  WEBSTER. 

before  ?  "  "  Not  a  mill ;  not  one  mill  —  not  the  ten 
hundredth  part  of  a  dollar  in  a  hundred  I "  To  ask 
men  to  make  such  a  sacrifice,  at  such  a  time,  from 
such  a  motive,  is  as  if  you  should  beg  the  captain  of 
the  steamer  "  Niagara,"  in  Boston  harbor,  in  fair 
weather, to  throw  over  all  his  cargo,  because  a  dandy 
in  the  cabin  was  blowing  the  fire  with  his  breath ! 
No,  my  friends,  I  shall  not  insult  the  majesty  of  that 
intellect  with  the  thought  that  he  believed  there  was 
danger  to  the  Union.  There  was  not  any  danger  of 
a  storm ;  not  a  single  cat's-paw  in  the  sky ;  not  a 
capful  of  bad  weather  between  Cape  Sable  and  the 
Lake  of  the  Woods ! 

But  suppose  the  worst  came  to  the  worst,  are  there 
no  other  things  as  bad  as  disunion  ?  The  Constitu- 
tion —  does  it  "  establish  justice,  insure  domestic 
tranquillity,"  and  "  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  "  to 
all  the  citizens  ?  Nobody  pretends  it,  —  with  every 
eighth  man  made  merchandise,  and  not  an  inch  of 
free  soil  covered  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
save  the  five  thousand  miles  which  Mr.  Webster 
ceded  away.  Is  disunion  worse  than  slavery  ?  Per- 
haps not  even  to  commerce,  which  the  Federalists 
thought  "  still  more  dear  "  than  Union.  But  what  if 
the  South  seceded  next  year,  and  the  younger  son 
took  the  portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to  him,  when 
America  divides  her  living  ?  Imagine  the  condition 
of  the  new  nation,  —  the  United  States  South ;  a 
nation  without  schools,  or  the  desire  for  them ;  with- 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  229 

out  commerce,  without  manufactures  ;  with  six  mil- 
lion white  men  and  three  million  slaves;  working 
with  that  barbarous  tool,  slave-labor,  an  instrument 
as  ill-suited  to  these  times  as  a  sickle  of  stone  to  cut 
grain  with  !  How  would  that  new  "  Democracy  " 
appear  in  the  eyes  of  the  Avorld,  when  the  public 
opinion  of  the  nations  looks  hard  at  tyranny  ?  It 
would  not  be  long  before  that  younger  son,  having 
spent  all  with  riotous  living,  and  devoured  his  sub- 
stance with  slavery,  brought  down  to  the  husks  that 
the  swine  do  eat,  —  would  arise,  and  go  to  the  Nation, 
and  say,  "  Father,  forgive  me ;  I  have  sinned  against 
heaven  and  in  thy  sight,  and  am  no  more  worthy  to 
be  called  thy  son.  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired 
servants."  The  Southern  men  know  well,  that  if 
the  Union  were  dissolved,  their  riches  would  take  to 
themselves  legs,  and  run  away,  —  or  firebrands,  and 
make  a  St.  Domingo  out  of  Carolina !  They  cast  off 
the  North !  they  set  up  for  themselves !. 

"  Tush  !  tush  !  Fear  boys  ■with  bugs  ! " 

Here  is  the  reason.  He  wanted  to  be  President. 
That  was  all  of  it.  Before  this  he  had  intrigued,  — 
always  in  a  clumsy  sort,  for  he  was  organized  for 
honesty,  and  cunning  never  throve  in  his  keeping,  — 
had  stormed  and  blustered  and  bullied.  "  Gen.  Tay- 
lor the  second  choice  of  Massachusetts  for  the  Pres- 
ident," quoth  he  :  "  I  tell  you  I  am  to  be  the  first,  and 
Massachusetts  has  no  second  choice."      Mr.   Clay 

VOL.  I.  20 


230  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

must  not  be  nominated  in  '44;  in  '48  Gen.  Taylor's 
was  a  "  nomination  not  fit  to  be  made."  He  wanted 
the  office  himself.  This  time  he  must  storm  the 
North,  and  conciliate  the  South.  This  was  his  bid 
for  the  Presidency,  —  fifty  thousand  square  miles  of 
territory  and  ten  millions  of  dollars  to  Texas ;  four 
new  Slave  States ;  slavery  in  Utah  and  New  Mex- 
ico ;  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  and  two  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  offered  to  Virginia  to  carry  free  men 
of  color  to  Africa. 

He  never  labored  so  before,  and  he  had  been  a 
hard-working  man.  What  speeches  he  made  at 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Albany,  Buffalo, 
Syracuse,  Annapolis  !  What  letters  he  wrote !  His 
intellect  was  never  so  active,  nor  gave  such  proofs  of 
Herculean  power.  The  hottest  headed  Carolinian 
did  not  put  his  feet  faster  or  further  on  in  the  sup- 
port of  slavery.     He 

"  Stood  lip  the  strongest  and  the  fiercest  spirit 
That  fought  'gainst  Heaven,  now  fiercer  by  despair." 

Once  he  could  say,  — 

"  By  general  instruction,  we  seek  as  far  as  possible  to  purify 
the  whole  moral  atmosphere ;  to  keep  good  sentiments  uppermost, 
and  to  turn  the  strong  current  of  feeling  and  opinion,  as  well  as 
the  censures  of  the  law,  and  the  denunciations  of  religion,  against 
immorality  and  crime.  We  hope  for  a  security  beyond  the  law, 
and  above  the  law,  in  the  prevalence  of  enlightened  and  well- 
principled  moral  sentiment."* 

*  Debate  in  the  Mass.  Convention,  Dec.  5,1820.  "Journal," 
uhi  suj}.  p.  145  ;  erroneously  printed  245. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  231 

In  1820  he  could  say,  "  All  conscience  ought  to  be 
respected ; "  in  1850  it  is  only  a  fanatic  who  heeds 
his  conscience,  and  there  is  no  higher  law.*  In 
scorn  of  the  higher  law,  he  far  outwent  his  transat- 
lantic prototype ;  for  even  Strafford,  in  his  devotion 
to  "  Thorovgh^^  had  some  respect  for  the  funda- 
mental law  of  nature,  and  said,  —  "If  I  must  be  a 
traitor  to  man  or  perjured  to  God,  I  will  be  faithful 
to  my  Creator." 

The  fountains  of  his  great  deep  were  broken  up 
—  it  rained  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  and  brought 
a  flood  of  slavery  over  this  whole  land ;  it  covered 
the  market,  and  the  factory,  and  the  court  house,  and 
the  warehouse,  and  the  college,  and  rose  up  high 
over  the  tops  of  the  tallest  steeples  I  But  the  Ark 
of  Freedom  went  on  the  face  of  the  waters,  —  above 
the  market,  above  the  factory,  above  the  court  house, 
above  the  college,  high  over  the  tops  of  the  tallest 
steeples,  it  floated  secure;  for  it  bore  the  Religion 
that  is  to  save  the  world,  and  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts 
had  shut  it  in. 

What  flattery  w^as  there  from  Mr.  Webster  I 
What  flattery  to  the  South !  what  respect  for 
Southern  nullifiers  !  "  The  Secessionists  of  the 
South  take  a  different  course  of  remark ; "  they  ap- 


•)•  See  the  Speeches  at  Buffalo,  Syracuse,  and  Albany,  in 
Pamphlet,  (New  York,  1851).  Speech  at  Capron  Springs,  etc., 
etc.,  etc. 


232  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

peal  to  no  higher  law  I  "  They  are  learned  and 
eloquent ;  they  are  animated  and  full  of  spirit ;  they 
are  high-minded  and  chivalrous ;  they  state  their 
supposed  injuries  and  causes  of  complaint  in  elegant 
phrases  and  exalted  tones  of  speech."  * 

He  derided  the  instructions  of  his  adopted  State. 

"  It  lias  been  said  that  I  have,  by  the  course  that  I  have  thought 
proper  to  pursue,  displeased  a  portion  of  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts. AVell,  suppose  I  did.  Suppose  I  displeased  all  the  people 
of  that  State,  —  what  of  that  ? 

"  What  had  I  to  do  with  instructions  from  Massachusetts  upon 
a  question  affecting  the  whole  nation  ! "  "I  assure  you,  gentle- 
men, I  cared  no  more  for  the  instructions  of  INIassachusetts  than  I 
did  for  those  of  any  other  State  ! "  f 

What  scorn  against  the  "  fanatics  "  of  the  North, 
against  the  Higher  Law,  and  the  God  thereof ! 

"  New  England,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  chosen  seat  of  the  Abo- 
lition presses  and  the  Abolition  Societies.  There  it  is  principally 
that  the  former  cheer  the  morning  by  full  columns  of  lamentation 
over  the  fate  of  human  beings  free  by  nature  and  by  a  law  above 
the  Constitution,  —  but  sent  back,  nevertheless,  chained  and 
manacled  to  slavery  and  to  stripes  ;  and  the  latter  refresh  them- 
selves from  daily  toil  by  orgies  of  the  night  devoted  to  the  same 
outpourings  of  philanthropy,  mingling  all  the  while  their  anathe- 
mas at  what  they  call '  men-catching '  with  the  most  horrid  and 
profane  abjuration  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  Indeed  of  the 
whole  Divine  Revelation :   they  sanctify  their  philanthropy  by 


*  Speech  at  Capron  Springs.  f  Ibid. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  233 

irreligion  and  pi'ofanity  ;  tboy  manifest  tlieir  cLarity  by  contempt 
of  God  and  his  commandments." 

"  Depend  upon  it,  the  law  [the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill]  will  be 
executed  in  its  spirit  and  to  its  letter.  It  will  be  executed  in  all 
the  great  cities,  —  here  in  Syracuse,  —  in  the  midst  of  the  next 
Anti-slavery  Convention,  if  the  occasion  shall  arise ;  then  we  shall 
see  what  becomes  of  their  '  lives  and  their  sacred  honor ! '  "  * 

How  he  mocked  at  the  "  higher  law,"  "  that  exists 
somewhere  between  us  and  the  third  heaven,  I  never 
knew  exactly  where !  " 

The  anti-slavery  men  were  "insane  persons," 
"  some  small  bodies  of  fanatics,"  "  not  fit  for  a 
lunatic  asylum."  f 

To  secure  his  purposes,  he  left  no  stone  unturned; 
he  abandoned  his  old  friends,  treating  them  with 
rage  and  insolence.  He  revolutionized  his  own 
politics  and  his  own  religion.  The  strong  advocate 
of  liberty,  of  justice  to  all  men,  the  opponent  of 
slavery,  turned  round  to  the  enemy  and  went  square 
over !  But  his  old  speeches  did  not  follow  him  :  a 
speech  is  a  fact ;  a  printed  word  becomes  immovable 
as  the  Alps.  His  former  speeches,  set  all  the  way 
from  Hanover  to  Washington,  were  a  line  of  for- 
tresses grim  with  cannon,  each  levelled  at  his  new 
position. 

How  low  he  stooped  to  supplicate  the  South,  to 


*  Speech  at  Syracuse  (New  York,  1851). 
t  See  speech  at  Buffalo,  22d  May,  1851.  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  544, 
et  seq. 

20* 


234  DANIEL   WEBSTEK. 

cringe  before  the  Catholics,  to  fawn  upon  the  Metho- 
dists at  Faneuil  Hall  I  Oh,  what  a  prostitution  of 
what  a  kingly  power  of  thought,  of  speech,  of  will! 

The  effect  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech  on  the  7th  of 
March  was  amazing :  at  first  Northern  men  ab- 
horred it ;  next  they  accepted  it.  Why  was  this  ? 
He  himself  has  perhaps  helped  us  understand  the 
mystery  :  — 

"  The  enormity  of  some  crimes  so  astonishes  men  as  to  subdue 
their  minds,  and  they  lose  the  desire  for  justice  in  a  morbid  ad- 
miration of  the  great  criminal  and  the  strangeness  of  tlie  crime." 

Slavery,  the  most  hideous  snake  which  Southern 
regions  breed,  with  fifteen  unequal  feet,  came  crawl- 
ing North ;  fold  on  fold,  and  ring  on  ring,  and  coil 
on  coil,  the  venomed  monster  came :  then  Avarice, 
the  foulest  worm  which  Northern  cities  gender  in 
their  heat,  went  crawling  South ;  with  many  a  wrig- 
gling curl,  it  wound  along  its  way.  At  length  they 
met,  and,  twisting  up  in  their  obscene  embrace,  the 
twain  became  one  monster,  Hunkerism  ;  theme  un- 
attempted  ♦yet  in  prose  or  song :  there  was  no  North, 
no  South;  they  were  one  poison  I  The  dragon 
wormed  its  way  along,  —  crawled  into  the  church  of 
Commerce,  wherein  the  minister  baptized  the  beast, 
"  Salvation."  From  the  ten  commandments  the 
dragon's  breath  effaced  those  which  forbid  to  kill 
and  covet,  with  the  three  between ;  then,  with  malig- 
nant tooth,  gnawed  out  the  chief  commandments 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  235 

whereon  the  law  and  prophets  hang.  This  amphis- 
bsBna  of  the  Western  World  then  swallowed  down 
the  holiest  words  of  Hebrew  or  of  Christian  speech, 
and  in  their  place  it  left  a  hissing  at  the  Higher  Law 
of  God.  Northward  and  Southward  wormed  the 
thing  along  its  track,  leaving  the  stain  of  its  breath 
in  the  people's  face ;  and  its  hissing  against  the 
Lord  rings  yet  in  many  a  speech  :  — 

"  Religion,  blushing,  veils  lier  sacred  fires, 
And,  unawares,  morality  expires." 

Then  what  a  shrinking  was  there  of  great  con- 
sciences, and  hearts,  and  minds  !  So  Milton,  fabling, 
sings  of  angels  fallen  from  their  first  estate,  seeking 
to  enter  Pandemonium :  — 

"  They  but  now  who  seemed 
In  bigness  to  surpass  Earth's  giant-sons, 
Now  less  than  smallest  dwarfs,  in  narrow  room 

Throng  numberless, 

to  smallest  forms 

Reduced  their  shapes  immense,  and  were  at  large, 
Though  without  number  still,  amidst  the  hall 
Of  that  infernal  court." 

Mr.  Webster  stamped  his  foot,  and  broke  through 
into  the  great  hollow  of  practical  atheism,  which  un- 
dergulfs  the  State  and  Church.  Then  what  a  caving 
in  was  there !  The  firm-set  base  of  northern  cities 
quaked  and  yawned  with  gaping  rents.  "  Penn's 
sandy  foundation  "  shook  again,  and  black  men  fled 
from  the  city  of  brotherly  love,  as  doves,  with  plain- 


236  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

tive  cry,  flee  from  a  farmer's  barn  when  summer  light- 
ning stabs  the  roof.  There  was  a  twist  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  and  the  doors  could  not  open  wide  enough  for 
Liberty  to  regain  her  ancient  Cradle ;  only  soldiers, 
gi'eedy  to  steal  a  man,  themselves  stole  out  and 
in.  Ecclesiastic  quicksand  ran  down  the  hole 
amain.  Metropolitan  churches  toppled,  and  pitched, 
and  canted,  and  cracked,  their  bowing  walls  all 
out  of  plumb.  Colleges,  broken  from  the  chain 
which  held  them  in  the  stream  of  time,  rushed 
towards  the  abysmal  rent.  Harvard  led  the  way, 
"  Christo  et  Ecclesice^^  in  her  hand.  Down  plunged 
Andover,  "  Conscience  and  the  Constitution  " 
clutched  in  its  ancient,  failing  arm.  New  Haven 
began  to  cave  in.  Doctors  of  Divinity,  orthodox, 
heterodox  with  only  a  doxy  of  doubt,  ''no  settled 
opinion,"  had  great  alacrity  in  sinking,  and  went 
down  quick,  as  live  as  ever,  into  the  pit  of  Korah, 
Dathan,  and  Abiram,  the  bottomless  pit  of  lower 
law,  —  one  with  his  mother,  cloaked  by  a  surplice, 
hid  beneath  his  sinister  arm,  and  an  acknowledged 
brother  grasped  by  his  remaining  limb.  Fossils  of 
theology,  dead  as  Ezekiel's  bones,  took  to  their  feet 
again,  and  stood  up  for  most  arrant  wrong.  "  There 
is  no  higher  law  of  God,"  quoth  they,  as  they  went 
down ;  "  no  golden  rule,  only  the  statutes  of  men." 
A  man  with  mythologic  ear  might  fancy  that  he 
heard  a  snickering  laugh  run  round  the  world  below, 
snorting,  whinnying,  and  neighing,  as  it  echoed  from 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  237 

the  infernal  spot  pressed  by  the  fallen  monsters  of 
ill-fame,  who,  thousands  of  years  ago,  on  the  same 
errand,  had  plunged  down  the  self-same  way.  What 
tidings  the  echo  bore,  Dante  nor  Milton  could  not 
tell.  Let  us  leave  that  to  darkness,  and  to  silence, 
and  to  death. 

But  spite  of  all  this,  in  every  city,  in  every  town, 
in  every  college,  and  in  each  capsizing  church,  there 
were  found  Faithful  Men,  who  feared  not  the  mon-. 
ster,  heeded  not  the  stamping  ;  —  nay,  some  doctors 
of  divinity  were  found  living.  In  all  their  houses  there 
was  light,  and  the  destroying  angel  shook  them  not. 
The  word  of  the  Lord  came  in  open  vision  to  their 
eye ;  they  had  their  lamps  trimmed  and  burning, 
their  loins  girt ;  they  stood  road-ready.  Liberty  and 
Religion  turned  in  thither,  and  the  slave  found  bread 
and  wings.  "  When  my  father  and  my  mother  for- 
sake me,  then  the  Lord  will  hold  me  up !  " 

After  the  7th  of  March,  Mr.  Webster  became  the 
ally  of  the  worst  of  men,  the  forefront  of  kidnapping. 
The  orator  of  Plymouth  Rock  was  the  advocate  of 
slavery ;  the  hero  of  Bunker  Hill  put  chains  around 
Boston  Court  House ;  the  applauder  of  Adams  and 
Jefferson  was  a  tool  of  the  slave-holder,  and  a  keeper 
of  slavery's  dogs,  the  associate  of  the  kidnapper,  and 
the  mocker  of  men  who  loved  the  right.  Two  years 
he  lived  with  that  rabble  rout  for  company,  his  name 
the  boast  of  every  vilest  thing. 

"  Oh,  lioAv  unlike  the  place  from  -whence  he  fell ! " 


238  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

In  early  life,  Mr.  Hill,  of  New  Hampshire,  pursued 
him  with  um-elenting  bitterness.  Of  late  years  IVIr. 
Webster  had  complained  of  this,  declaring  that 
"  Mr.  Hill  had  done  more  than  any  other  man  to 
debauch  the  character  of  New  Hampshire,  bringing 
the  bitterness  of  politics  into  private  life."  But  after 
that  day  of  St.  Judas,  Mr.  "Webster  pursued  the  same 
course  which  IVIr.  Hill  had  followed  forty  years  be- 
fore, and  the  two  enemies  were  reconciled.*  The 
Herod  of  the  Democrats  and  the  Pilate  of  Federal- 
ism were  made  friends  by  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
and  rode  in  the  same  "  Omnibus,"  —  "a  blue-light 
Federalist "  and  "  a  genuine  Democrat  dyed  in  the 
wool." 

Think  of  him !  —  the  Daniel  Webster  of  Plymouth 
Rock  advocating  the  "  Compromise  Measures ! "  the 
Daniel  Webster  of  Faneuil  Hall,  who  once  spoke  with 
the.  insp nation  of  Samuel  Adams  and  the  tongue  of 
James  Otis,  honoring  the  holy  dead  with  his  praise ! 
—  think  of  him  at  Buffalo,  Albany,  Syracuse,  scoff- 
ing at  modern  men,  who  "  perilled  their  lives,  their 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor,"  to  visit  the  father- 
less and  the  widows  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep 
themselves  unspotted  from  the  world !  —  think  of 
him  threatening  with  the  gallows  such  as  clothed 
the  naked,  fed  the  hungry,  visited  the  prisoner,  and 


*  See  above  pp.  181-192;  and  tlie  Letter  of  Hon.  Isaac  Hill 
(April  1 7,  1850),  and  Mr.  Webster's  Reply. 


DA]S[IEL   WEBSTER.  239 

gave  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  him  that  was  ready  to 
perish !  Think  of  Daniel  Webster  become  the  as- 
sassin of  Liberty  in  the  Capitol !  Think  of  him, 
full  of  the  Old  Testament  and  dear  Isaac  Watts, 
scoffing  at  the  Higher  Law  of  God,  while  the  moun- 
tains of  Virginia  looked  him  in  the  face  ! 

But  what  was  the  recompense  ?  Ask  Massachu- 
chusetts,  —  ask  the  North.  Let  the  Baltimore  Con- 
vention tell.  He  was  the  greatest  candidate  before 
it.  General  Scott  is  a  little  man  when  the  feathers 
are  gone.  Fillmore,  you  know  him.  Both  of  these, 
for  greatness  of  intellect,  compared  to  Webster,  were 
as  a  single  magpie  measured  by  an  eagle.  Look  at 
his  speeches  ;  look  at  his  forehead  ;  look  at  his  face  ! 
The  two  hundred  and  ninety-three  delegates  came 
together  and  voted.  They  gave  him  thirty-two  votes  I 
Where  were  the  men  of  the  "  lower  law,"  who  made 
a  denial  of  God  the  first  principle  of  their  politics  ? 
Where  were  they  who  in  Faneuil  Hall  scoffed  and 
jeered  at  the  "  Higher  Law ; "  or  at  Capron  Springs, 
who  "  Laughed"  when  he  mocked  at  the  Law  higher 
than  the  Virginia  hills  ?    Where  were  the  kidnappers  ? 

The  "  lower  law  "  men  and  the  kidnappers  strained 
themselves  to  the  utmost,  and  he  had  thnty-two 
votes ! 

Where  was  the  South  ?  Fifty-three  times  did  the 
Convention  ballot,  and  the  South  never  gave  him  a 
vote,  —  not  a  vote ;  no,  not  one !     Northern  friends  — 


240  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

I  honor  their  affection  for  the  great  man — went  to  the 
South,  and  begged  for  the  poor  and  paltry  pittance 
of  a  seeming  vote,  in  order  to  break  the  bitterness  of 
the  fall  I  They  went  "  with  tears  in  their  eyes,"  and 
in  mercy's  name,  they  asked  that  crumb  from  the 
Southern  board.  But  the  cruel  South,  treacherous 
to  him  whom  she  beguiled  to  treason  against  God, 
she  answered,  "  Not  a  vote !  "  It  was  the  old  fate 
of  men  who  betray.  Southern  politicians  "  did  not 
dare  dispense  with  the  services  thrust  on  him,  but 
revenged  themselves  by  withdrawing  his  well- 
merited  reward."  It  was  the  fate  of  Strafford ;  the 
fate  of  Wolsey.  When  Lasthenes  and  Euthycrates 
betrayed  Olynthus  to  Macedonian  Philip,  fighting 
against  the  liberties  of  Greece,  they  were  distin- 
guished —  if  Demosthenes  be  right  —  only  by  the 
cruelty  of  their  fate.  Mr.  Webster  himself  had  a 
forefeeling  that  it  might  be  so ;  for,  on  the  morning 
of  his  fatal  speech,  he  told  a  brother  Senator,  "  I 
have  my  doubts  that  the  speech  I  am  going  to  make 
will  ruin  me."  But  he  played  the  card  with  a  heavy, 
a  rash,  a  trembling,  and  not  a  skilful  hand.  It  was 
only  the  playing  of  a  card,  —  but  his  last  card  !  Mr. 
Calhoun  had  said,  "  The  furthest  Southerner  is 
nearer  to  us  than  the  nearest  Northern  man."  They 
could  trust  him  with  their  work, —  not  with  its  cove- 
nanted pay  I 

Oh !  Cardinal  Wolsey !  there  was  never  such  a  fall. 

"  He  fell,  like  Lucifer,  never  to  hope  again  I " 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  241 

The  telegraph  which  brought  him  tidings  of  his 
fate  was  a  thunder-stroke  out  of  the  clear  sky.  No 
wonder  that  he  wept,  and  said,  "  I  am  a  disgraced 
man,  a  ruined  man !  "  His  early,  his  last,  his  fondest 
dream  of  ambition  broke,  and  only  ruin  filled  his 
hand !  What  a  spectacle !  to  move  pity  in  the 
stones  of  the  street ! 

But  it  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  be  spared  him. 
His  cup  of  bitterness,  already  full,  was  made  to  run 
over;  for  joyous  men,  full  of  wine  and  the  nomina- 
tion, called  him  up  at  midnight  out  of  his  bed  —  the 
poor,  disappointed  old  man !  —  to  "  congratulate  him 
on  the  nomination  of  Scott !  "  And  they  forced  the 
great  man,  falling  back  on  his  self-respect,  to  say 
that  the  next  morning  he  should  "  rise  with  the  lark, 
as  jocund  and  as  gay." 

Was  not  that  enough  ?  Oh,  there  is  no  pity  in 
the  hearts  of  men !  Even  that  was  not  enough  ! 
Northern  friends  went  to  him,  and  asked  him  to 
advise  men  to  vote  for  General  Scott ! 

General  Scott  is  said  to  be  an  anti-slavery  man  ; 
but  soon  as  the  political  carpenters  put  the  "  planks  " 
together  at  Baltimore,  he  scrambled  upon  the  plat- 
form, and  stands  there  on  all-fours  to  this  day,  look- 
ing for  "  fellow-citizens,  native  and  adopted,"  listen- 
ing for  "  that  rich  brogue,"  and  declaring  that,  after 
all,  he  is  "  only  a  common  man."  Did  you  ever  read 
General  Scott's  speeches  ?  Then  think  of  asking 
Daniel  Webster  to  recommend  him  for  President,  — 

VOL.    I.  21 


242  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Scott  in  the  chair,  and  Webster  out !  That  was 
gall  after  the  wormwood  I  They  say  that  Mr. 
Webster  did  write  a  letter  advocating  the  election 
of  Scott,  and  afterwards  said,  "  I  still  live."  If  he 
did  so,  attribute  it  to  the  wanderings  of  a  great 
mind,  shattered  by  sickness ;  and  be  assured  he 
would  have  taken  it  back,  if  he  had  ever  set  his  firm 
foot  on  the  ground  again  I 

Daniel  Webster  went  down  to  Marshfield  —  to 
die !  He  died  of  his  7th  of  March  speech !  That 
word  indorsed  on  Mason's  Bill  drove  thousands  of 
fugitives  from  America  to  Canada.  It  put  chains 
round  our  court  house  ;  it  led  men  to  violate  the 
majesty  of  law  all  over  the  North.  I  violated  it, 
and  so  did  you.  It  sent  Thomas  Sims  in  fetters  to 
his  jail  and  his  scourging  at  Savannah  ;  it  caused 
practical  atheism  to  be  preached  in  many  churches 
of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Washington ;  and, 
worst  of  all,  in  Boston  itself  I  and  then,  with  its  own 
recoil,  it  sent  Daniel  Webster  to  his  grave,  giving 
him  such  a  reputation  as  a  man  w^ould  not  wish  for 
his  utterest  foe. 

No  event  in  the  American  Revolution  was  half  so 
terrible  as  his  speeches  in  defence  of  slavery  and  kid- 
napping, his  abrogation  of  the  right  to  discuss  all 
measures  of  the  government.  We  lost  battles  again 
and  again,  lost  campaigns  —  our  honor  we  never 
lost.  The  army  was  without  powder  at  Cambridge, 
in  '76 ;  without  shoes  and  blankets  in  '78 ;  and  the 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  243 

bare  feet  of  New  England  valor  marked  the  ice  with 
blood  when  they  crossed  the  Delaware.  But  we 
were  never  without  conscience  ;  never  without  mo- 
rality. Powder  might  fail,  and  shoes  drop,  old  and 
rotten,  from  soldiers'  feet.  But  the  love  of  God 
was  in  the  American  heart,  and  no  American  gen- 
eral said,  "  There  is  no  law  higher  than  the  Blue 
Ridge  I  "  Nay,  they  appealed  to  God's  Higher  Law, 
not  thinking  that  in  politics  religion  "  makes  men 
mad." 

While  the  Philip  of  slavery  was  thundering  at  our 
gate,  the  American  Demosthenes  advised  us  to  "  con- 
quer our  prejudices "  against  letting  him  in ;  to 
throw  down  the  wall  "  with  alacrity,"  and  bid  him 
come  :  it  was  a  "  constitutional "  Philip.  How  silver 
dims  the  edge  of  steel !  When  the  tongue  of  free- 
dom was  cut  out  of  the  mouth  of  Europe  by  the 
sabres  of  tyrants,  and  only  in  the  British  Isles  and  in 
Saxon  speech  could  liberty  be  said  or  sung,  the 
greatest  orator  who  ever  spoke  the  language  of  Mil- 
ton and  Burke  told  us  to  suppress  discussion !  In 
the  dark  and  troubled  night  of  American  politics, 
our  tallest  Pharo  on  the  shore  hung  out  a  false 
beacon. 

Once  Mr.  Webster  said,  "  There  will  always  be 
some  perverse  minds  who  will  vote  the  wrong  way, 
let  the  justice   of  the  case  be   ever   so  apparent."  * 

*  "  Columbian  Centinel,"  March  11,  1820. 


244  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

Did  he  know  what  he  was  doing  ?  Too  well.  In 
the  winter  of  1850,  he. partially  prepared  a  speech  in 
defence  of  freedom.  Was  his  own  amendment  to 
Mason's  Bill  designed  to  be  its  text  ?  *  Some  say- 
so.  I  know  not.  He  wrote  to  an  intimate  and  sa- 
gacious friend  in  Boston,  asking,  How  far  can  I  go 
in  defence  of  freedom,  and  have  Massachusetts  sus- 
tain me  ?  The  friend  repaid  the  confidence  and  said, 
Far  as  you  like  I  Mr.  Webster  went  as  far  as  New 
Orleans,  as  far  as  Texas  and  the  Del  Norte,  in  sup- 
port of  slavery!  When  that  speech  came,  —  the 
rawest  wind  of  March,  —  the  friend  declared:  It  sel- 
dom happens  to  any  man  to  be  able  to  disgrace  the 
generation  he  is  born  in.  But  the  opportunity  has 
presented  itself  to  IVIr.  Webster,  and  he  has  done 
the  deed! 

Cardinal  Wolsey  fell,  and  lost  nothing  but  his 
place.  Bacon  fell ;  the  "  wisest,  brightest,"  lived 
long  enough  to  prove  himself  the  "  meanest  of  man- 
kind." Strafford  came  down.  But  it  was  nothing 
to  the  fall  of  Webster.  The  Anglo-Saxon  race  never 
knew  such  a  terrible  and  calamitous  ruin.  His  down- 
fall shook  the  continent.  Truth  fell  prostrate  in  the 
street.  Since  then,  the  court  house  has  a  twist  in 
its  walls,  and  equity  cannot  enter  its  door ;  the  stee- 


*  Works,  vol.  V.  p.  373-4.  See  too,  Speech  at  Buffalo  (In 
Pamphlet),  p.  17.  He  proposed  to  have  "a  summary  trial  by- 
Jury  ! " 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  245 

pies  point  awry,  and  the  "  Higher  Law  "  is  hurled 
down  from  the  pulpit.  One  priest  would  enslave  all 
the  "  posterity  of  Ham,"  and  another  would  drive  a 
fugitive  from  his  own  door ;  a  third  became  certain 
that  Paul  was  a  kidnapper;  and  a  fourth  had  the 
"  assurance  of  consciousness  that  Christ  Jesus  would 
have  sold  and  bought  slaves  I "  Practical  atheism  be- 
came common  in  the  pulpits  of  America ;  they  for- 
got that  there  was  a  God.  In  the  hard  winter  of 
1780,  if  Fayette  had  copied  Arnold,  and  Washing- 
ton gone  over  to  the  enemy,  the  fall  could  not  have 
been  worse.  Benedict  Arnold  fell,  but  fell  through, 
—  so  low  that  no  man  quotes  him  for  precedent. 
Aaron  Burr  is  only  a  warning.  Webster  fell,  and 
he  lay  there  "  not  less  than  archangel  ruined,"  and 
enticed  the  nation  in  his  fall.  Shame  on  us  I  —  all 
those  three  are  of  New  England  blood  I  Webster, 
Arnold,  Burr!. 

My  friends,  it  is  hard  for  me  to  say  these  things. 
My  mother's  love  is  warm  in  my  own  bosom  still, 
and  I  hate  to  say  such  words.  But  God  is  just; 
and,  in  the  presence  of  God,  I  stand  here  to  tell  the 
truth. 

Did  men  honor  Daniel  Webster  ?  So  did  I.  I 
was  a  boy  ten  years  old  when  he  stood  at  Plymouth 
Rock,  and  never  shall  I  forget  how  his  clarion-words 
rang  in  my  boyish  heart.  I  was  but  a  little  boy 
when  he  spoke  those  brave  words  in  behalf  of 
21* 


246  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Greece.  I  was  helped  to  hate  slavery  by  the  lips  of 
that  great  intellect;  and  now  that  he  takes  back  his 
words,  and  comes  himself  to  be  Slavery's  slave,  I 
hate  it  tenfold  harder  than  before,  because  it  made  a 
bondman  out  of  that  proud,  powerful  nature. 

Did  men  love  him  ?  So  did  I.  Not  blindly,  but 
as  I  loved  a  great  mind,  as  the  defender  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Unalienable  Rights  of  Man. 

Sober  and  religious  men  of  Boston  yet  mourn 
that  their  brothers  were  kidnapped  in  the  city  of 
Hancock  and  Adams  —  it  was  Daniel  Webster  who 
kidnapped  them.  Massachusetts  has  wept  at  the 
deep  iniquity  which  was  wrought  in  her  capital  —  it 
was  done  by  the  man  whom  she  welcomed  to  her 
bosom,  and  long  had  loved  to  honor.    Let  history,  as 

"  Sad  as  angels  at  the  good  man's  sin, 
Blush  to  record,  and  weep  to  give  it  in ! " 

Do  men  mourn  for  him  ?  See  how  they  mourn ! 
The  streets  are  hung  with  black.  The  newspapers 
are  sad  colored.  The  shops  are  put  in  mourning. 
The  Mayor  and  Aldermen  wear  crape.  Wherever 
his  death  is  made  known,  the  public  business  stops, 
and  flags  drop  half-mast  down.  The  courts  adjourn. 
The  courts  of  Massachusetts  —  at  Boston,  at  Ded- 
ham,  at  Lowell,  all  adjourn ;  the  courts  of  New 
Hampshire,  of  Maine,  of  New  York;  even  at  Balti- 
more and  Washington,  the  courts  adjourn ;  for  the 
great  lawyer  is  dead,  and  Justice  must  wait  another 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  .  247 

day.  Only  the  United  States  Court,  in  Boston,  try- 
ing a  man  for  helping  Shadrach  out  of  the  furnace 
of  the  kidnappers,  —  the  court  which  executes  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill, — that  does  not  adjourn;  that 
keeps  on ;  its  worm  dies  not,  and  the  fire  of  its  per- 
secution is  not  quenched,  when  death  puts  out  the 
lamp  of  life!  Injustice  is  hungry  for  its  prey,  and 
must  not  be  balked.  It  was  very  proper !  Symboli- 
cal court  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  —  it  does  not 
respect  life,  why  should  it  death  ?  and,  scorning  lib- 
erty, why  should  it  heed  decorum  ?  Did  the  judges 
deem  that  Webster's  spirit,  on  its  way  to  God,  would 
look  at  Plymouth  Rock,  then  pause  on  the  spots 
made  more  classic  by  his  eloquence,  and  gaze  at' 
Bunker  Hill,  and  tarry  his  hour  in  the  august  com- 
pany of  noble  men  at  Faneuil  Hall,  and  be  glad  to 
know  that  injustice  was  chanting  his  requiem  in  that 
court?  They  greatly  misjudge  the  man.  I  know 
Daniel  Webster  better,  and  I  appeal  for  him  against 
his  idly  judging  friends.* 

Do  men  now  mourn  for  him,  the  great  man  elo- 


*  I  am  told  that  there  was  some  technical  reason  why  that  court 
continued  Its  session.  I  know  nothing  of  the  motive ;  but  I  be- 
lieve it  was  the  fact  that  the  only  court  in  the  United  States  which 
did  not  adjourn  at  the  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Webster, 
was  the  court  which  was  seeking  to  punish  a  man  for  rescuing 
Shadrach  from  the  fiery  furnace  made  ready  for  him.  Here  is  the 
item,  from  the  Boston  Atlas  for  Tuesday,  Oct.  26,  1851,  "  Elizur 
Wright  being  on  trial  [for  alleged  aiding  in  the  attempt  to  rescue' 
Shadrach]  the  court  continued  its  session  !" 


248  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

quent  ?  I  put  on  sackcloth  long  ago ;  I  mourned  for 
him  when  he  wrote  the  Creole  letter,  which  surprised 
Ashburton,  Briton  that  he  was.  I  mourned  when 
he  spoke  the  speech  of  the  7th  of  March.  I  mourned 
when  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  passed  Congress,  and 
the  same  cannons  which  have  just  fired  minute-guns 
for  him  fired  also  one  hundred  rounds  of  joy  at  the 
forging  of  a  new  fetter  for  the  fugitive's  foot.  I 
mourned  for  him  when  the  kidnappers  first  came  to 
Boston,  —  hated  then,  now  " respectable  men,"  "the 
companions  of  princes,"  enlarging  their  testimony 
in  the  court.  I  mourned  when  my  ow^n  parishioners 
fled  from  the  "  stripes "  of  New  England  to  the 
"  stars "  of  Old  England.  I  mourned  when  Ellen 
Craft  fled  to  my  house  for  shelter  and  for  succor,  and 
for  the  first  time  in  all  luy  life  I  armed  this  hand.  I 
mourned  when  I  married  William  and  Ellen  Craft, 
and  gave  them  a  Bible  for  their  soul,  and  a  Sword  to 
keep  that  soul  living  in  a  living  frame.  I  luourned 
when  the  court  house  was  hung  in  chains ;  when 
Thomas  Sims,  from  his  dungeon,  sent  out  his  peti- 
tion for  prayers,  and  the  churches  did  not  dare  to 
pray.  I  mourned  when  that  poor  outcast  in  yonder 
dungeon  sent  for  me  to  visit  him,  and  when  I  took 
him  by  the  hand  which  Daniel  Webster  was  chain- 
ing in  that  hour.  I  mourned  for  Webster  when  we 
prayed  our  prayer  and  sang  our  psalm  on  Long 
Wharf  in  the  morning's  gray.  I  mourned  then :  I 
shall  not  cease  to  mourn.    The  flags  will  be  removed 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  249 

from  the  streets,  the  cannon  will  sound  their  other 
notes  of  joy ;  but,  for  me,  I  shall  go  mourning  all 
my  days  ;  I  shall  refuse  to  be  comforted  ;  and  at  last 
I  shall  lay  down  my  gray  hairs  with  weeping  and 
with  sorrow  in  the  grave.  O  Webster  I  Webster ! 
would  God  that  I  had  died  for  thee ! 

He  was  a  powerful  man  physically,  a  man  of  a 
large  mould,  —  a  great  body  and  a  great  brain  :  *  he 
seemed  made  to  last  a  hundred  years.  Since  Soc- 
rates, there  has  seldom  been  a  head  so  massive  huge, 
save  the  stormy  features  of  Michael  Angelo, — 

"  The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome, 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome  ; " 

he  who  sculptured  Day  and  Night  into  such  ma- 
jestic forms,  —  looked  them  in  his  face  before  he 
chiselled  them  in  stone.  The  cubic  capacity  of  his 
head  surpassed  nearly  all  former  measurements  of 
mind.  Since  Charlemagne,  I  think  there  has  not 
been  such  a  grand  figure  in  all  Christendom.  A 
large  man,  decorous  in  dress,  dignified  in  deportment, 
he  walked  as  if  he  felt  himself  a  king.  Men  from 
the  country,  who  knew  him  not,  stared  at  him  as  he 
passed  through  our  streets.  The  coal-heavers  and 
porters  of  London  looked  on  him  as  one  of  the  great 


*  See  Dr.  Jeffries'  account  of  the  last  illness  of  the  late  Daniel 
Webster,  etc.  (Phil.,  1853),  p.  17. 


250  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

forces  of  the  globe.  They  recognized  a  native  king. 
In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  he  looked  an 
emperor  in  that  council.  Even  the  majestic  Calhoun 
seemed  common,  compared  with  him.  Clay  looked 
vulgar,  and  Van  Buren  but  a  fox.  His  countenance, 
like  Strafford's,  was  "  manly  black."     His  mind  — 

"  Was  lodged  in  a  fair  and  lofty  room. 
On  his  brow 
Sat  terror,  mixed  "with  wisdom  ;  and,  at  once, 
Saturn  and  Hermes  in  his  countenance." 

What  a  mouth  he  had !  It  was  a  lion's  mouth.  Yet 
there  was  a  sweet  grandeur  in  his  smile,  and  a 
woman's  softness  when  he  would.  What  a  brow  it 
was!  what  eyes  I  like  charcoal  fires  in  the  bottom  of 
a  deep,  dark  well !  His  face  was  rugged  with  vol- 
canic flames,  —  great  passions  and  great  thoughts. 

"  The  front  of  Jove  himself ; 
An  eye  like  Mars  to  threaten  and  command." 

Let  me  examine  the  elements  of  Mr.  Webster's 
character  in  some  detail.  Divide  the  faculties,  not 
bodily,  into  intellectual,  moral,  affectional,  and  relig- 
ious, and  see  what  he  had  of  each,  beginning  with 
the  highest. 

I.  His  latter  life  shows  that  he  had  no  large  devel- 
opment of  the  Religious  Powers,  which  join  men 
consciously  to  the  infinite  God.  He  had  little 
religion  in  the  higher  meaning  of  that  word :  much  in 
the  lower, — he  had  the  conventional  form  of  religion, 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  251 

the  formality  of  outward  and  visible  prayer ;  rev- 
erence for  the  Bible  and  the  name  of  Christ ;  attend- 
ance at  meeting  on  Sundays  and  at  the  "  ordinances 
of  religion."  He  was  a  "  devout  man,"  in  the 
ecclesiastic  sense  of  the  word.  But  it  is  easy  to  be 
devout,  hard  to  be  moral.  Of  the  two  men,  in  the 
parable,  who  "  went  up  to  the  temple  to  pray,"  only 
the  Pharisee  was  "  devout "  in  the  common  sense. 
Devoutness  took  the  Priest  and  the  Levite  to  the 
temple :  morality  led  the  good  Samaritan  to  the 
man  fallen  among  thieves. 

His  reputation  for  religion  seems  to  rest  on  these 
facts,  —  that  he  read  the  Bible,  and  knew  more 
passages  from  it  than  most  political  editors,  more 
than  some  clergymen  ;  he  thought  Job  "  a  great  epic 
poem,"  and  quoted  Habakkuk  by  rote ;  —  that  he 
knew  many  hymns  by  heart ;  attended  what  is  called 
"  divine  service  ; "  agreed  with  a  New  Hampshire 
divine  "  in  all  the  doctrines  of  a  Christian  life  ; " 
and,  in  the  "  Girard  case,"  praised  the  popular  the- 
ology, with  the  ministers  thereof,  —  the  latter  as 
"  appointed  by  the  Author  of  the  Christian  religion 
himself." 

He  seems  by  nature  to  have  had  a  religious  turn 
of  mind  ;  was  full  of  devout  and  reverential  feelings  ; 
took  a  deep  delight  in  religious  emotions  ;  was  fond 
of  religious  books  of  a  sentimental  cast ;  loved 
Watts's  tender  and  delicious  hymns,  with  the 
devotional   parts    of   the   Bible ;    his   memory   was 


252  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

stored  with  the  poetry  of  hymn-books  ;  he  was  fond 
of  attendance  at  meeting.  He  had  no  particle  of  re- 
ligious bigotry ;  joining  an  Orthodox  Church  at 
Boscawen,  an  Episcopal  at  Washington,  a  Unita- 
rian at  Boston,  and  attending  religious  services  with- 
out much  regard  for  the  theology  of  the  minister. 
He  loved  religious  forms,  and  could  not  see  a  child 
baptized  without  dropping  a  tear.  Psalms  and 
hymns  also  brought  the  woman  into  those  great 
eyes.  He  was  never  known  to  swear,  or  use  any 
profanity  of  speech.*  Considering  the  habits  of  his 
political  company,  thaf  is  a  fact  worth  notice.  But 
I  do  not  find  that  his  religious  emotions  had  any 
influence  on  his  latter  life,  either  public  or  private. 
He  read  religion  out  of  politics  with  haughty  scorn, 
—  "  It  makes  men  mad  I  "  It  appeared  neither  to 
check  him  from  ill,  nor  urge  to  good.  Though  he  said 
he  loved  "  to  have  religion  made  a  personal  matter," 
he  forsook  the  church  which  made  it  personal  in  the 
form  of  temperance.  His  "  religious  character  "  was 
what  the  churches  of  Commerce  tend  to  form,  and 
love  to  praise.f 

II.  Of  the  Affections  he  was  well  provided  by 
nature,  though  they  were  but  little  cultivated, — 
attachable  to  a  few  who  knew  him,  and  loved  him 


*  So  I  preached  and  printed  in  1852  and  1853.     But  the  state- 
ment is  also  a  mistake. 

1 1  think  no  American  had  ever  so  many  Eulogies  in  print. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  253 

tenderly ;  and,  if  he  hated  like  a  giant,  he  loved  also 
like  a  king. 

He  had  small  respect  for  the  mass  of  men,  —  a 
contempt  for  the  judgment  and  the  feelings  of  the 
millions  who  make  up  the  people.  Many  w'^omen 
loved  him ;  some  from  pure  affection,  others  fasci- 
nated and  overborne  by  the  immense  masculineness 
of  the  man.  Some  are  still  left  who  knew  him  in 
early  life,  before  political  ambition  set  its  mark  on 
his  forehead,  and  drove  him  forth  into  the  world : 
they  love  him  with  the  tenderest  of  woman's  affec- 
tion. This  is  no  small  praise.  In  his  earlier  life  he 
was  fond  of  children,  loved  their  prattle  and  their 
play.  They,  too,  were  fond  of  him,  came  to  him  as 
dust  of  iron  to  a  loadstone,  climbed  on  his  back,  or, 
when  he  lay  down,  lay  on  his  limbs  and  also  slept. 

Of  unimpassioned  and  unrelated  love,  there  are 
two  modes,  —  friendship  for  a  few ;  philanthropy  for 
all.  Friendship  he  surely  had,  especially  in  earlier 
life.  All  along  the  shore,  men  loved  him ;  men  in 
Boston  loved  him  to  the  last ;  Washington  held 
loving  hearts  which  worshipped  him.  But,  of  late 
years,  he  turned  round  to  smite  and  crush  his  early 
friends  who  kept  the  Higher  Law ;  ambition  tore 
the  friendship  out  of  him,  and  he  became  unkind 
and  cruel.  The  companions  of  his  later  years  were 
chiefly  low  men,  with  large  animal  appetites,  ser- 
vants of  his  body's  baser  parts,  or  tide-waiters  of  his 
ambition,  —  vulgar  men  in  Boston  and  New  York, 

VOL.  I.  22 


254  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

who  lurk  in  the  habitations  of  cruelty,  whereof  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full,  seeldng  to  enslave 
their  brother-men.  These  barnacles  clove  to  the 
great  man's  unprotected  parts,  and  hastened  his 
decay.  When  kidnappers  made  their  loathsome 
lair  of  his  bosom,  what  was  his  friendship  worth  ? 

Of  Philanthropy,  I  claim  not  much  for  him.  The 
noble  plea  for  Greece  is  the  most  I  can  put  in  for 
argument.  He  cared  little  for  the  poor  ;  charity  sel- 
dom invaded  his  open  purse ;  he  trod  down  the 
poorest  and  most  friendless  of  perishing  men.  His 
name  was  never  connected  with  the  humanities  of 
the  age.  Soon  as  the  American  Government 
seemed  fixed  on  the  side  of  cruelty,  he  marched  all 
his  dreadful  artillery  over,  and  levelled  his  breaching 
cannons  against  men  ready  to  perish  without  his 
shot.  In  later  years,  his  face  was  the  visage  of  a 
tyrant. 

in.  Of  Conscience  it  seemed  to  me  he  had  little  ; 
in  his  later  life,  exceeding  little  :  his  moral  sense 
seemed  long  besotted;  almost,  though  not  wholly, 
gone.  Hence,  though  he  was  often  generous,  he  was 
seldom  just.  Free  to  give  as  to  grasp,  he  was  lavish 
by  instinct,  not  charitable  on  principle. 

He  had  little  courage,  and  rarely  spoke  a  Northern 
word  to  a  Southern  audience,  save  his  official  words 
in  Consi'ess.  In  Charleston  he  was  the  "  school- 
master  that  gives  us  no  lessons."  He  quailed  before 
the  Southern  men  who  would  "  dissolve  the  Union," 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  255 

when  he  stood  before  their  eye.  They  were  "  high- 
minded  and  chivalrous  :  "  it  was  only  the  non-resist- 
ants of  the  North  he  meant  to  ban  ! 

He  was  indeed  eminently  selfish,  joining  the 
instinctive  egotism  of  passion  with  the  self-con- 
scious, voluntary,  deliberate,  calculating  egotism  of 
ambition.  He  borrowed  money  of  rich  young  men 
—  ay,  and  of  poor  ones  —  in  the  generosity  of  their 
youth,  and  never  repaid.  He  sought  to  make  his 
colleagues  in  office  the  tools  of  his  ambition,  and 
that  failing,  pursued  them  with  the  intensest  hate. 
Thus  he  sought  to  ruin  the  venerable  John  Quincy 
Adams,  when  the  President  became  a  Representa- 
tive. By  secret  hands  he  scattered  circulars  in  Mr. 
Adams's  district  to  work  his  overthrow  ;  got  other 
men  to  oppose  him.  With  different  men  he  suc- 
ceeded better.  He  used  his  party  as  he  used  his 
friends,  —  for  tools.  He  coquetted  with  the  Demo- 
crats in  '42,  with  the  Free-Soilers  in  '48  ;  but,  the 
suit  miscarrying,  turned  to  the  Slave  Power  in  '50, 
and  negotiated  an  espousal  which  was  cruelly  broken 
off  in  '52.  Men,  parties,  the  law,*  and  the  nation,  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  to  the  colossal  selfishness 
of  his  egotistic  ambition. 

His  strength  lay  not  in  the  religious,  nor  in  the 
afFectional,  nor  in  the  moral  part  of  man. 

IV.  But  his  Intellect  was  immense.     His  power 

*  Leges  invalidfe  prius  ;  imo  nocere  coact^e. 


256  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

of  comprehension  was  vast.  He  methodized  swiftly. 
If  you  look  at  the  varieties  of  intellectual  action,  you 
may  distribute  them  into  three  great  modes ;  the 
Understanding,  the  Imagination,  and  the  Reason ;  — 
the  Understanding  dealing  with  details  and  methods, 
the  practical  power ;  Imagination,  with  beauty,  the 
power  to  create ;  Reason,  with  first  principles  and 
universal  laws,  the  philosophic  power. 

We  must  deny  to  IVIr.  Webster  the  gi'eat  Reason. 
He  does  not  belong  at  all  with  the  chief  men  of  that 
department,  —  with  Socrates,  Aristotle,  Plato,  Leib- 
nitz, Newton,  Des  Cartes,  and  the  other  mighties. 
Nay,  he  has  no  place  with  humbler  men  of  reason, 
with  common  philosophers.  He  had  no  philosophical 
system  of  politics,  few  philosophical  ideas  of  politics, 
whereof  to  make  a  system.  He  seldom  grasps  a 
universal  law.  His  measures  of  expediency  for  to- 
day are  seldom  bottomed  on  universal  principles  of 
right,  which  last  for  ever. 

I  cannot  assign  to  him  large  Imagination.  He 
was  not  creative  of  new  forms  of  thought  or  of 
beauty ;  so  he  lacks  the  poetic  charm  which  gladdens 
in  the  loftiest  eloquence. 

But  his  Understanding  was  exceedingly  great. 
He  acquired  readily  and  retained  well ;  arranged 
with  ease  and  skill,  and  fluently  reproduced.  As  a 
scholar,  he  passed  for  learned  in  the  American  Sen- 
ate, where  scholars  are  few ;  for  a  universal  man, 
with  editors  of  political  and  commercial  prints.    But 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  257 

his  learning  was  narrow  in  its  range,  and  not  very 
nice  in  its  accuracy.  His  reach  in  history  and  litera- 
ture was  very  small  for  a  man  seventy  years  of  age, 
always  associating  with  able  men.  To  science  he 
seems  to  have  paid  scarce  any  attention  at  all.  It 
is  a  short  radius  that  measures  the  arc  of  his  historic 
realm.  A  few  Latin  authors,  whom  he  loved  to  quote, 
made  up  his  meagre  classic  store.  He  was  not  a 
scholar,  and  it  is  idle  to  claim  great  or  careful  scholar- 
ship for  him.  Compare  him  with  the  prominent 
statesmen  of  Europe,  or  with  the  popular  orators  of 
England,  you  see  continually  the  narrow  range  of 
his  culture. 

As  a  statesman,  his  lack  of  what  I  call  the  higher 
Reason  and  Imagination  continually  appears.  He 
invented  nothing.  To  the  national  stock  he  added 
no  new  idea,  created  out  of  new  thought ;  no  new 
maxim,  formed  by  induction  out  of  human  history 
and  old  thought.  The  great  ideas  of  the  time  were 
not  borne  in  his  bosom. 

He  organized  nothing.  There  were  great  ideas  of 
immense  practical  value  seeking  lodgement  in  a 
body :  he  aided  them  not.  None  of  the  great  meas- 
ures of  our  time  were  his  —  not  one  of  them.  His 
best  bill  was  the  Specie  Bill  of  1815,  which  caused 
payments  to  be  made  in  national  currency. 

His  lack  of  Conscience  is  painfully  evident.  As 
Secretary  of  State,  he  did  not  administer  eminently 
well.  When  Secretary  of  State  under  Mr.  Tyler, 
22* 


258  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

he  knew  how  to  be  unjust  to  poor,  maltreated  Mex- 
ico. His  letters  in  reply  to  the  just  complaints  of 
Mr.  Bocanegra,  the  Mexican  Secretary  of  State,  are 
painful  to  read :  it  is  the  old  story  of  the  Wolf  and 
the  Lamb.* 

The  appointments  made  under  his  administration 
had  better  not  be  looked  at  too  closely.  The  affairs 
of  Cuba  last  year  and  this,  the  affairs  of  the  Fisher- 
ies and  the  Lobos  Islands,  are  little  to  his  credit. 

He  was  sometimes  ignorant  of  the  affairs  he  had 
to  treat ;  he  neglected  the  public  business,  —  left 
grave  matters  all  unattended  to.  Nay,  he  did  worse. 
Early  in  August  last,  Mr.  Lawrence  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  British  Foreign  Secretary,  in  which 
explanations  were  made  calculated  to  remove  all 
anxiety  as  to  the  Fishery  Question.  He  wrote  a  pa- 
per detailing  the  result  of  the  interview.  It  was  de- 
signed to  be  communicated  to  the  American  Senate. 
Mr.  Lawrence  sent  it  to  Mr.  "Webster.  It  reached 
the  Department  at  Washington  on  the  24th  of  Au- 
gust. But  Mr.  Webster  did  not  communicate  it  to 
the  Senate ;  even  the  President  knew  nothing  of  its 
existence  till  after  the  Secretary's  death.  Now,  it  is 
not  "  compatible  with  the  public  interest  to  publish 
it,"  as  its  production  would  reveal  the  negligence  of 


*  See  these  letters  —  to  Mr.  Thompson,  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  445, 
et  seq.;  and  those  of  Mr.  Bocanegra  to  Mr.  Webster,  p.  442,  et 
seq.  457,  et  seq.  How  different  is  the  tone  of  America  to  powerful 
England !     Whom  men  wrong  they  hate. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  259 

the  Department.*  You  remember  the  letter  he  pub- 
lished on  his  own  account  relating  to  the  Fisheries !  f 
No  man,  it  was  said,  could  get  office  under  his  ad- 
ministration, "  unless  bathed  in  negro's  blood  :  "  sup- 
port of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  "  like  the  path  of 
righteous  devotion,  led  to  a  blessed  preferment." 

Lacking  both  moral  principle  and  intellectual 
ideas,  political  ethics  and  political  economy,  it  must 
needs  be  that  his  course  in  politics  was  crooked.  He 
opposed  the  INIexican  war,  but  invested  a  son  in  it, 
and  praised  the  soldiers  who  fought  therein,  as  sur- 
passing our  fathers  who  "  stood  behind  bulwarks  on 
Bunker  Hill "  I  He  called  on  the  nation  to  uphold  the 
stars  of  America  on  the  fields  of  Mexico,  though  he 
knew  it  was  the  stripes  that  they  held  up.  Now  he 
is  for  free  trade,  then  for  protection ;  now  for  specie, 
then  for  bills ;  first  for  a  bank,  then  it  is  "  an  obso- 
lete idea ; "  now  for  freedom  and  against  slavery, 
then  for  slavery  and  against  freedom ;  now  Justice 
is  the  object  of  government,  now  Money.  Now 
what  makes  men  Christians  makes  them  good  citi- 
zens ;  next,  religion  is  good  "  everywhere  but  in  pol- 
itics, —  there  it  makes  men  mad."     Now  religion  is 


*  The  Letter  was  read  in  the  secret  session  of  the  Senate, 
March  8,  1853,  and  published  in  Senate  Doc,  Special  Sess.,  No. 
4,  p.  2.  See  also  Lord  Malmesburv's  letter  to  Mr.  Ci-ampton, 
(Aug.  10,  1852,)  Id.  p.  6-8;  see  too  p.  9. 

t  July  20,  1852. 


260  DANIEL   AVEBSTER. 

the  only  gi'ound  of  government,  and  all  conscience 
is  to  be  respected;  next, there  is  no  Law  higher  than 
the  "  Omnibus,"  and  he  hoots  at  conscience,  and 
would  not  reenact  the  Law  of  God. 

He  began  his  career  as  the  friend  of  free  trade  and 
hard  money;  he  would  restrict  the  government  to 
the  strait  line  of  the  Constitution  rigidly  defined;  he 
would  resist  the  Bank,  the  protective  tariff,  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  they  exceeded  the  limits  of  the 
Constitution :  he  became  the  pensioned  advocate  of 
restricted  trade  and  of  paper-money ;  he  interpreted 
the  Constitution  to  oppress  the  several  States  and 
the  citizens  ;  brought  the  force  of  the  government 
against  private  right,  and  lent  all  his  might  to  the 
extension  of  slavery.  Once  he  stood  out  boldly  for 
the  right  of  all  men  "  to  canvass  public  measures  and 
the  merits  of  public  men  ; "  then  he  tells  us  that  dis- 
cussion "  must  be  suppressed  "  !  Several  years  ago, 
he  called  a  private  meeting  of  the  principal  manufac- 
turers of  Boston,  and  advised  them  to  abandon  the 
protective  tariff;  but  they  would  not,  and  so  he  de- 
fended it  as  warmly  as  ever  !  His  course  was 
crooked  as  the  Missouri.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  were,  like  him,  without  a  philo- 
sophical scheme  of  political  conduct,  or  any  great 
ideas  whereby  to  shape  the  future  into  fairer  forms ; 
but  the  principle  of  duty  was  the  thread  which  joined 
all  parts  of  their  public  ministration.     Thereon  each 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  261 

strung  his  victories.  But  selfish  egotism  is  the  only 
continuous  thread  I  find  thus  running  through  the 
crooked  life  of  the  famous  American. 

With  such  a  lack  of  ideas  and  of  honesty,  with  a 
dread  of  taking  the  responsibility  in  advance  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  lacking  confidence  in  the  people,  and 
confidence  in  himself,  he  did  not  readily  understand 
the  public  opinion  on  which  he  depended.  He 
thought  himself  "  a  favorite  with  the  people,"  — 
"  sure  of  election  if  nominated ; "  it  was  "  only  the 
politicians  "  who  stood  between  him  and  the  nation. 
He  thought  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  would  be  popular 
in  the  North  ;  that  it  could  be  executed  in  Syracuse ; 
and  Massachusetts  would  conquer  her  prejudices 
with  alacrity ! 

He  had  little  value  as  a  permanent  guide  :  he 
changed  often,  but  at  the  unlucky  moment.  He 
tacked  and  wore  ship  many  a  time  in  his  life,  always 
in  bad  weather,  and  never  came  round  but  he  fell  off 
from  the  popular  wind.  Perseverance  makes  the 
saints :  he  always  forsook  his  idea  just  as  that  was 
about  to  make  its  fortune.  In  his  voyaging  for  the 
Presidency,  he  was  always  too  late  for  the  tide ;  em- 
barked on  the  ebb,  and  was  left  as  the  stream  run 
dry.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  has  done  the  South 
no  good,  save  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  her  prison- 
house,  the  Cabin  of  Uncle  Tom,  and  make  the  North 
hate  slavery  with  a  tenfold  hate.      So  far  has  he 


262  DANIEL   "WEBSTER. 

"  Websterized "  the  Whig  party,  he  has  done  so  to 
its  ruin. 

He  was  a  great  advocate,  a  great  orator :  it  is  said, 
the  greatest  in  the  land,  —  and  I  do  not  doubt  that 
this  was  true.  Surely  he  was  immensely  great. 
When  he  spoke,  he  was  a  grand  spectacle.  His 
noble  form,  so  dignified  and  masculine ;  his  massive 
head  ;  the  mighty  brow,  Olympian  in  its  majesty ; 
the  great,  deep,  dark  eye,  which,  like  a  lion's,  seemed 
fixed  on  objects  afar  off,  looking  beyond  what  lay  in 
easy  range  ;  the  mouth  so  full  of  strength  and  deter- 
mination,—  these  all  became  the  instruments  of  such 
eloquence  as  few  men  ever  hear.  He  magnetized 
men  by  his  presence  ;  he  subdued  them  by  his  will 
more  than  by  his  argument.  Many  have  surpassed 
him  in  written  words  ;  for  he  could  not  embody  the 
sunshine  in  such  flowers  of  thought  as  Burke,  Mil- 
ton, and  Cicero  wrought  into  mosaic  oratory.  But, 
since  the  great  Athenians,  Demosthenes  and  Pericles, 
who  ever  thundered  out  such  spoken  eloquence  as 
he? 

Yet  he  has  left  no  perfect  specimen  of  a  great 
oration.  He  had  not  the  instinctive  genius  which 
creates  a  beautiful  whole  by  nature,  as  a  mother 
bears  a  living  son  ;  nor  the  wide  knowledge,  the  deep 
philosophy,  the  plastic  industry,  which  forms  a  beau- 
tiful whole  by  art,  as  a  sculptor  chisels  a  marble  boy. 


DANIEL   WEBSTEK.  263 

So  his  greatest  and  most  deliberate  efforts  of  oratory 
will  not  bear  comparison  with  the  great  eloquence  of 
nature  that  is  born,  nor  the  great  eloquence  of  art 
which  is  made.  Compared  therewith,  his  mighty 
works  are  as  Hercules  compared  with  Apollo.  It  is 
an  old  world,  and  excellence  in  oratory  is  difficult. 
Yet  he  has  sentences  and  paragraphs  that  I  think 
unsurpassed  and  unequalled,  and  I  do  not  see  how 
they  can  ever  fade.  He  was  not  a  Nile  of  eloquence, 
cascading  into  poetic  beauty  now,  then  watering 
whole  provinces  with  the  drainage  of  tropic  mo.un- 
tains :  he  was  a  Niagara,  pouring  a  world  of  clear 
waters  adown  a  single  ledge. 

His  style  was  simple,  the  business-style  of  a  strong 
man.  Now  and  then  it  swelled  into  beauty,  though 
it  was  often  dull.  In  later  years,  he  seldom  touched 
the  conscience,  the  affections,  or  the  soul,  except, 
alas  I  to  smite  our  sense  of  justice,  our  philanthropy, 
and  trust  in  God.  He  always  addressed  the  under- 
standing, not  the  reason, —  Calhoun  did  that  the 
more,  —  not  the  imagination:  in  his  speech  there 
was  little  wit,  little  beauty,  little  poetry.  He  laid 
siege  to  the  understanding.  Here  lay  his  strength  — 
he  could  make  a  statement  better  than  any  man  in 
America ;  had  immense  power  of  argumentation, 
building  a  causeway  from  his  will  to  the  hearer's 
mind.  He  was  skilful  in  devising  "  middle  terms," 
in  making  steps  whereby  to  lead  the  audience  to  his 


264  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

determination.  No  man  managed  the  elements  of 
his  argument  with  more  practical  effect. 

Perhaps  he  did  this  better  when  contending  for  a 
wrong,  than  when  battling  for  the  right.  His  most 
ingenious  arguments  are  pleas  for  injustice.*  Part 
of  the  effect  came  from  the  physical  bulk  of  the 
man  ;  part  from  the  bulk  of  will,  which  marked  all 
his  speech,  and  writing  too ;  but  much  from  his 
power  of  statement.  He  gathered  a  great  mass  of 
material,  bound  it  together,  swung  it  about  his  head, 
fixed  his  eye  on  the  mark,  then  let  the  ruin  fly.  If 
you  want  a  word  suddenly  shot  from  Dover  to 
Calais,  you  send  it  by  lightning ;  if  a  ball  of  a  ton 
weight,  you  get  a  steam-cannon  to  pitch  it  across. 
Webster  was  the  steam-gun  of  eloquence.  He  hit 
the .  mark  less  by  skill  than  strength.  His  shot 
seemed  big  as  his  target.f 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  weapons  which 
speakers  use.  This  orator  brings  down  his  quarry 
with  a  single  subtle  shot,  of  sixty  to  the  pound.     He 


*  See  examples  of  this  in  the  Creole  letter,  and  that  to  Mr. 
Thompson  (Works,  vol.  vi.),  and  in  many  a  speech  ;  —  especially 
in  defence  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and  Kidnapping. 

t  "  Tu  quoque,  Piso, 

Judicis  affectum,  possessaque  pectora  ducis 
Victor ;  sponte  sua  sequitur,  quocunque  vocasti : 
Et  te  tlante  capit  judex,  quara  non  habet  iram." 
Pseudo  Lucanus  ad  Calpurnium  Pisonem,  Poematiotiiim,  v.  44,  ei  seq. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  265 

carries  death  without  weight  in  his  gun,  as  sure  as 
fate. 

Here  is  another,  the  tin-pedlar  of  American  speech. 
He  is  a  snake  in  the  grass,  slippery,  shining,  with  a 
baleful  crest  on  his  head,  cunning  in  his  crazy  eye, 
and  the  poison  of  the  old  serpent  in  his  heart,  and 
on  his  slimy  jaw,  and  about  the  fang  at  the  bottom 
of  his  smooth  and  forked  and  nimble  tongue.  He 
conquers  by  bewitching ;  he  fascinates  his  game  to 
death. 

Commonly,  Mr.  Webster  was  open  and  honest  in 
his  oratory.  He  had  no  masked  batteries,  no  Quaker 
guns.  He  had  "  that  rapid  and  vehement  declama- 
tion which  fixes  the  hearer's  attention  on  the  subject, 
making  the  speaker  forgotten,  and  leaving  his  art 
concealed."  He  wheeled  his  forces  into  line,  column 
after  column,  with  the  quickness  of  Hannibal  and 
the  masterly  arrangement  of  Caesar,  and,  like  Napo- 
leon, broke  the  centre  of  his  opponent's  line  by  the 
superior  weight  of  his  own  column  and  the  sudden 
heaviness  of  his  fire.  Thus  he  laid  siege  to  the 
understanding,  and  carried  it  by  dint  of  cannonade. 
This  was  his  strategy,  in  the  court  house,  in  the 
senate,  and  in  the  public  hall.  There  were  no 
ambuscades,  no  pitfalls,  or  treacherous  Indian  sub- 
tlety. It  was  the  tactics  of  a  great  and  naturally 
honest-minded  man. 

In  his  oratory  there  was  but  one  trick, — that 
of  self-depreciation.     This  came  on  him  in  his  later 

VOL.  I.  23 


266  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

years,  and  it  always  failed.  He  was  too  big  to 
make  any  one  believe  he  thought  himself  little  ;  so 
obviously  proud,  we  knew  he  valued  his  services 
high  when  he  rated  them  so  low.  That  comprehen- 
sive eye  could  not  overlook  so  great  an  object  as 
himself.  He  was  not  organized  to  cheat,  to  deceive ; 
and  did  not  prosper  when  he  tried.  'T  is  ill  the  lion 
apes  the  fox. 

He  was  ambitious.  Cardinal  Wolsey's  "  un- 
bounded stomach"  was  also  the  stomach  of  Web- 
ster. Yet  his  ambition  mostly  failed.  In  forty 
years  of  public  life,  he  rose  no  higher  than  Secretary 
of  State  ;  and  held  that  post  but  five  years.  He 
was  continually  outgeneralled  by  subtler  men.  He 
had  little  political  foresight :  for  he  had  not  the  all- 
conquering  religion  which  meekly  executes  the  Law 
of  God,  fearless  of  its  consequence  ;  nor  yet  the 
wide  Philanthropy,  the  deep  sympathy  with  all  that 
is  human,  which  gives  a  man  the  public  heart,  and 
so  the  control  of  the  issues  of  life,  which  thence  pro- 
ceed ;  nor  the  great  Justice  which  sees  the  everlast- 
ing right,  and  journeys  thitherward  through  good  or 
ill;  nor  the  mighty  Reason,  which,  reflecting,  beholds 
the  principles  of  human  nature,  the  constant  mode  of 
operation  of  the  forces  of  God  in  the  forms  of  men ; 
nor  the  poetic  Imagination,  which  in  its  political 
sphere  creates  great  schemes  of  law :  and  hence  he 
was  not  popular. 

He  longed  for  the  Presidency  ;  but  Harrison  kept 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  267 

him  from  the  nomination  in  '40,  Clay  in  '44,  Taylor 
in  '48,  and  Scott  in  '52.  He  never  had  a  wide  and 
original  influence  in  the  politics  of  the  nation  ;  for 
he  had  no  elemental  thunder  of  his  own  —  the 
Tariff  was  Mr.  Calhoun's  at  first ;  the  Force  Bill 
was  from  another  hand ;  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was 
Mr.  Mason's ;  "  the  Omnibus  "  had  many  fathers, 
whereof  Webster  was  not  one.  He  was  not  a  blood- 
relation  to  any  of  the  great  measures,  —  to  free-trade 
or  protection,  to  paper-money  or  hard  coin,  to  free- 
dom or  slavery;  he  was  of  their  kindred  only  by 
adoption.  He  has  been  on  all  sides  of  most  ques- 
tions, save  on  the  winning  side. 

In  the  case  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  he  stood 
betwixt  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  blessed  the 
plague.  But,  even  here,  he  faltered  when  he  came 
North  again,  —  "  The  South  will  get  no  concessions 
from  me."  Mr.  Webster  commended  the  first  draught 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  with  Mr.  Mason's 
amendments  thereto,  volunteering  his  support  thereof 
"  to  the  fullest  extent."  But  he  afterwards  and 
repeatedly  declared,  "  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was 
not  such  a  measure  as  I  had  prepared  before  I  left 
the  Senate,  and  which  I  should  have  supported  if  I 
had  remained  in  the  Senate."  *     "I  was  of  opinion," 


*  Mr.  Webster's  letter  to  the  Union  Committee.     Works,  vol. 
vi.  p.  578  ;  et  al. 


268  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

he  said,  "  that  a  summary  trial  by  jury  might  be  had, 
which  would  satisfy  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  and 
produce  no  harm  to  those  who  claimed  the  services 
of  fugitives."  *  Nay,  he  went  so  far  as  to  introduce 
a  bill  to  the  Senate  providing  a  trial  by  jury  for  all 
fugitives  claiming  a  trial  for  their  freedom.f  He 
thought  the  whole  business  of  delivering  up  such  as 
owed  service  or  labor,  belonged  to  the  State  whither 
the  fugitive  fled,  and  not  to  the  general  government.  J 
Of  course  he  must  have  considered  it  constitutional 
and  expedient  to  secure  for  the  fugitive  a  trial  before 
an  impartial  jury  of  "twelve  good  and  lawful  men," 
who  should  pass  upon  the  whole  matter  at  issue. 
But,  with  that  conviction,  and  with  that  bill  ready 
drafted,  as  he  says,  in  his  desk,  he  could  volunteer 
his  support  to  one  which  took  away  from  the  States 
all  jurisdiction  in  the  matter,  and  from  the  fugitive 
all  "  due  process  of  law,"  all  trial  by  jury,  and  left 
him  in  the  hands  of  a  creature  of  the  court,  who  was 
to  be  paid  twice  as  much  for  enslaving  his  victim  as 
for  acquitting  a  man !  § 

He   had   almost   no   self-reliant  independence  of 


*  Speech  at  Buffalo,  (New  York,  1851,)  p.  17. 

t  See  it  in  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  373-4. 

X  Ibid,  p.  354.  But  yet  he  affirmed  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  -which  gave  the  business  to  the  federal  gov- 
ernment. See  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  551,  et  seq.  Speeches  at  Buf- 
falo, etc. 

§  See  Speech  at  Syracuse,  p.  36. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  269 

character.  It  was  his  surroundings,  not  his  will,  that 
shaped  his  course,  — "  driven  by  the  wind  and 
tossed." 

Mr.  Webster's  political  career  began  with  gener- 
ous promise.  He  contended  for  the  rights  of  the 
people  against  the  government,  of  the  minority 
against  the  majority  ;  he  defended  the  right  of  each 
man  to  discuss  all  public  measures,  and  the  conduct 
of  public  men ;  he  wished  commerce  to  be  unre- 
stricted, payments  to  be  made  in  hard  coin.  He 
spoke  noble  words  against  oppression,  —  the  despot- 
ism of  the  "  Holy  Alliance  "  in  Europe,  the  cruelty 
of  the  Slave-Trade  in  America.  Generously  and 
nobly  he  contended  against  the  extension  of  slavery 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  Not  philanthropic  by  in- " 
stinct  or  moral  principle,  averse  to  democratic  insti- 
tutions both  by  nature  and  conviction,  he  yet,  by 
instinctive  generosity,  hated  tyranny,  hated  injustice, 
hated  despotism.  He  appealed  to  moral  power 
against  physical  force.  He  sympathized  with  the 
republics  of  South  America.  His  great  powers  tak- 
ing such  a  direction  certainly  promised  a  brilliant 
future,  large  services  for  mankind.  But,  alas !  he  fell 
on  evil  times  :  who  ever  fell  on  any  other  ?  He  was 
intensely  ambitious ;  not  ambitious  to  serve  man- 
kind, but  to  hold  office,  have  power  and  fame.  Is 
this  the  "  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind  ?  "  It  was  not 
a  very  noble  object  he  proposed  as  the  end  of  his 
life ;  the  means  to  it  became  successively  more  and 

23* 


270  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

more  unworthy.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
mammon." 

For  some  years,  no  large  body  of  men  has  had 
much  trust  in  him,  —  admiration,  but  not  confidence. 
In  Massachusetts,  off  the  pavements,  for  the  last 
three  years,  he  has  had  but  little  power.  After  the 
speech  of  March  7th,  he  said,  "  I  will  be  maintained 
in  Massachusetts."  Massachusetts  said  No  !  Only 
in  the  cities  that  bought  him  was  he  omnipotent. 
Even  the  South  would  not  trust  him.  Gen.  Jackson 
was  the  most  popular  man  of  our  time ;  Calhoun 
was  a  favorite  throughout  the  South  ;  Clay,  in  all 
quarters  of  the  land ;  and,  at  this  day,  Seward 
wields  the  forces  of  the  Whigs.  With  all  his  talent, 
Webster  never  had  the  influence  on  America  of  the 
least  of  these. 

Yet  Daniel  Webster  had  many  popular  qualities. 
He  loved  out-door  and  manly  sports,  —  boating,  fish- 
ing, fowling.  He  was  fond  of  nature,  loving  New 
Hampshire's  mountain  scenery.  He  had  started 
small  and  poor,  had  risen  great  and  high,  and  honor- 
ably had  fought  his  way  alone.  He  rose  early  in 
the  morning.  He  loved  gardening,  "the  purest  of 
human  pleasures."  He  was  a  farmer,  and  took  a 
countryman's  delight  in  country  things,  —  in  loads  of 
hay,  in  trees,  in  turnips,  and  the  noble  Indian  corn, 
in  monstrous  swine.  He  had  a  patriarch's  love  of 
sheep, — choice  breeds  thereof  he  had.  He  took 
delight  in  cows, — short-horned  Durhams,  Hereford- 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  271 

shires,  Ayrshires,  Alderneys.  He  tilled  paternal 
acres  with  his  own  oxen.  He  loved  to  give  the  kine 
fodder.  It  was  pleasant  to  hear  his  talk  of  oxen. 
And  but  three  days  before  he  left  the  earth ;  too  ill 
to  visit  them,  his  cattle,  lowing,  came  to  see  their 
sick  lord ;  and,  as  he  stood  in  his  door,  his  great 
oxen  were  driven  up,  that  he  might  smell  their 
healthy  breath,  and  look  his  last  on  those  broad,  gen- 
erous faces,  that  were  never  false  to  him. 

He  loved  birds,  and  would  not  have  them  shot  on 
his  premises ;  and  so  his  farm  twittered  all  over  with 
their  "  sweet  jargonings."  Though  in  public  his 
dress  was  more  uniformly  new  than  is  common  with 
acknowledged  gentlemen,  at  home  and  on  his  estate 
he  wore  his  old  and  homely  clothes,  and  had  kind 
words  for  all,  and  hospitality  besides.  He  loved  his 
father  and  brother  with  great  tenderness,  which 
easily  broke  into  tears  when  he  spoke  of  them.  He 
was  kind  to  his  obscurer  and  poor  relations.  He  had 
no  money  to  bestow ;  they  could  not  share  his  intel- 
lect, or  the  renown  it  brought.  But  he  gave  them  his 
affection,  and  they  loved  him  with  veneration.  He 
was  a  friendly  man :  all  along  the  shore  there  were 
plain  men  that  loved  him,  —  whom  he  also  loved. 
He  was  called  "  a  good  neighbor,  a  good  towns- 
man : "  — 

"  Lofty  and  sour  to  those  that  loved  him  not ; 
But  to  those  men  that  sought  him,  sweet  as  summer." 


272  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

His  influence  on  the  development  of  America  has 
not  been  great.  He  had  large  gifts,  large  opportuni- 
ties also  for  their  use,  —  the  two  greatest  things 
which  great  men  ask.  Yet  he  has  brought  little  to 
pass.  No  great  ideas,  no  great  organizations,  will 
bind  him  to  the  coming  age.  His  life  has  been  a 
long  vacillation.  Ere  long,  men  will  ask  for  the 
historic  proof  to  verify  the  reputation  of  his  power. 
It  will  not  appear.  For  the  present,  his  career  is  a 
failure :  he  was  balked  of  his  aim.  How  will  it  be 
for  the  future  ?  Posterity  wall  vainly  ask  for  proof 
of  his  intellectual  powder  to  invent,  to  organize,  to 
administer.  The  historian  must  write  that  he  aimed 
to  increase  the  executive  power,  the  central  govern- 
ment, and  to  weaken  the  local  power  of  the  States  ; 
that  he  preferred  the  Federal  authority  to  State 
rights,  the  judiciary  to  the  legislature,  the  govern- 
ment to  the  people,  the  claims  of  money  to  the 
rights  of  man.  Calhoun  will  stand  as  the  represent- 
ative of  State  rights  and  free  trade ;  Clay,  of  the 
American  system  of  protection ;  Benton,  of  payment 
in  sound  coin  ;  some  other,  of  the  revenue  tariff.  And 
in  the  greatest  question  of  the  age,  the  question  of 
Human  Rights,  as  champions  of  mankind,  there  will 
appear  Adams,  Giddings,  Chase,  Palfrey,  Mann,  Hale, 
Seward,  Rantoul,  and  Sumner ;  yes,  one  other  name, 
which  on  the  historian's  page  will  shade  all  these, — 
the  name  of  Garrison.  Men  will  recount  the  words 
of  Webster  at  Plymouth  Rock,  at  Bunker  Hill,  at 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  273 

Faneuil  Hall,  at  Niblo's  Garden  ;  they  will  also  recol- 
lect that  he  declared  "  protection  of  property  "  to  be 
the  great  domestic  object  of  government;  that  he  said, 
"  Liberty  first  and  Union  afterwards  was  delusion 
and  folly  ;  "  that  he  called  on  Massachusetts  to  con- 
quer her  "  prejudices  "  in  favor  of  unalienable  rights, 
and  with  alacrity  give  up  a  man  to  be  a  slave  ;  turn- 
ed all  the  North  into  a  hunting-field  for  the  blood- 
hound ;  that  he  made  the  negation  of  God  the  first 
principle  of  government ;  that  our  New  England 
elephant  turned  round,  tore  Freedom's  standard 
down,  and  trod  her  armies  under  foot.  They  will 
see  that  he  did  not  settle  the  greatest  questions  by 
Justice  and  the  Law  of  God.  His  parallel  lines  of 
power  are  indeed  long  lines,  —  a  nation  reads  his 
word :  they  are  not  far  apart,  you  cannot  get  many 
centuries  between  ;  for  there  are  no  great  ideas  of 
Right,  no  mighty  acts  of  Love,  to  keep  them  wide. 

There  are  brave  words  which  Mr.  Webster  has 
spoken  that  will  last  while  English  is  a  speech  ; 
yea,  will  journey  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and 
one  day  be  classic  in  either  hemisphere,  in  every 
zone.  But  what  will  posterity  say  of  his  efforts  to 
chain  the  fugitive,  to  extend  the  area  of  human 
bondage ;  of  his  haughty  scorn  of  any  Law  higher 
than  what  trading  politicians  enact  in  the  Capitol  ? 
"  There  is  a  Law  above  all  the  enactments  of 
human  codes,  the  same  throughout  the  world,  the 
same  in  all  time ; "  "  it  is  the  law  written  by  the 


274  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

finger  of  God  upon  the  heart  of  man  ;  and  by  that 
law,  unchangeable  and  eternal,  while  men  despise 
fraud,  and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor  blood,  they  will 
reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty  fantasy 
that  man  can  hold  property  in  man."  * 

Calhoun,  Clay,  Webster,  —  they  were  all  able 
men,  —  long  in  politics,  all  ambitious,  grasping  at  the 
Presidency,  all  failing  of  what  they  sought.  All  three 
called  themselves  "  Democrats,"  taking  their  stand 
on  the  unalienable  rights  of  man.  But  all  three  con- 
joined to  keep  every  eighth  man  in  the  nation  a  chat- 
tel slave ;  all  three  at  last  united  in  deadly  war 
against  the  unalienable  rights  of  men  whom  swarthy 
mothers  bore.     O  democratic  America ! 

Was  Mr.  Webster's  private  life  good  ?  There  are 
many  depraved  things  done  without  depravity  of 
heart.  I  am  here  to  chronicle,  and  not  invent.  I 
cannot  praise  a  man  for  virtues  which  he  did  not 
have.  This  day,  such  praise  sounds  empty  and  im- 
pertinent as  the  chattering  of  a  caged  canary  amid 
the  sadness  of  a  funeral  prayer.  Spite  of  womanly 
tenderness,  it  is  not  for  me  to  renounce  my  rnan- 
hood  and  my  God.     I  shall  — 

"  Naught  extenuate  and  nothing  add, 
Nor  set  down  aujcht  in  malice." 


*  Lord  Brougham's  speech  on  Negro  Slavery,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  July  13,  1830. 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  275 

Before  he  left  New  Hampshire,  I  find  no  stain 
upon  his  conduct  there,  save  recklessness  of  expense. 
But  in  Boston,  when  he  removed  here,  there  were 
men  in  vogue,  in  some  respects  perhaps,  worse  than 
any  since  as  conspicuous,  —  open  debauchees.  He 
fell  in  with  them,  and  became  over-fond  of  animal 
delights,  of  the  joys  of  the  body's  baser  parts;  fond 
of  sensual  luxury,  the  victim  of  low  appetites.  He 
loved  power,  loved  pleasure,  loved  wine.  Let  me 
turn  off  my  face,  and  say  no  more  of  this  sad  theme  : 
others  were  as  bad  as  he.* 

He  was  intensely  proud.  Careless  of  money,  he 
was  often  in  trouble  on  its  account.  He  contracted 
debts,  and  did  not  settle  ;  borrowed  of  rich  and  poor, 
and  young  and  old,  and  rendered  not  again.  Private 
money  often  clove  to  his  hands ;  yet  in  his  nature 
there  was  no  taint  of  avarice.  He  lavished  money 
on  luxuries,  while  his  washerwoman  was  left  unpaid. 
Few  Americans  have  squandered  so  much  as  he. 
Rapacious  to  get,  he  was  prodigal  of  his  own.  I 
wish  the  charges  brought  against  his  public  adminis- 
tration may  be  disproved,  whereof  the  stain  rests  on 
him  to  this  day.  When  he  entered  on  a  lawyer's  life, 
Mr.  Gore  advised  him,  "  Whatever  bread  you  eat, 
let  it  be  the  bread  of  independence !  "     Oh  that  the 


*  Hoc  sat  viator :    reliqua  non  sinit  pudor ; 
Tu  suspicare  et  ambula. 

Sannazarius,  Epig.  11.  29. 


276  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

great  mind  could  have  kept  that  counsel !  But,  even 
at  Portsmouth,  luxury  brought  debt,  and  many  an  evil 
on  its  back.  He  collected  money,  and  did  not  pay ! 
"  Bread  of  independence,"  when  did  he  eat  it  last  ? 
Rich  men  paid  his  debts  of  money  when  he  came  to 
Massachusetts  ;  they  took  a  dead-pledge  on  the  man ; 
only  death  redeemed  that  mertgage.  In  1827  he  solic- 
ited the  Senatorship  of  Massachusetts ;  it  "  would 
put  down  the  calumnies  of  Isaac  Hill !  "  He  obtained 
the  office,  not  without  management.  Then  he  refused 
to  take  his  seat  until  ten  thousand  dollars  was  raised 
for  him.  The  money  came  clandestinely,  and  he 
went  into  the  Senate — a  pensioner!  His  reputation 
demanded  a  speech  against  the  tariff  of  '28 ;  his  pen- 
sion required  his  vote  for  that  "  bill  of  abominations." 
He  spoke  one  way,  and  voted  the  opposite.  Was 
that  the  first  dotation  ?  He  was  forestalled  before  he 
left  New  Hampshire.  The  next  gift  Avas  twenty 
thousand,  it  is  said.  Then  the  sums  increased. 
What  great  '•  gifts "  have  been  privately  raised  for 
him  by  contributions,  subscriptions,  donations,  and 
the  like  !  Is  it  honest  to  buy  up  a  man  ?  honest  for 
a  man  to  sell  himself?  Is  it  just  for  a  Judge  who 
administers  the  law  to  take  a  secret  bribe  of  a  party 
at  his  court  ?  Is  it  just  for  a  party  to  offer  such  gifts  ? 
Answer  Lord  Bacon  who  tried  it;  answer  Thomas 
More  who  tried  it  not.  It  is  worse  for  a  Maker  of 
laws  to  be  bought  and  sold.  New  England  men,  I 
hope  not  meaning  wrong,  bought  the  great  senator 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  277 

in  '27,  and  long  held  him  in  their  pay.  They  gave 
him  all  his  services  were  worth,  —  gave  more.  His 
commercial  and  financial  policy  has  been  the  bane  of 
New  England  and  the  North.  In  1850  the  South 
bought  him,  but  never  paid !  * 

A  Senator  o'f  the  United  States,  he  was  pensioned 
by  the  capitalists  of  Boston.  Their  "gifts"  in  his 
hand,  how  could  he  dare  be  just !  His  later  speeches 
smell  of  bribes.  Could  not  Francis  Bacon  warn 
him,  nor  either  Adams  guide  ?  Three  or  four  hun- 
dred years  ago,  Thomas  More,  when  "  under  Sheriff 
of  London,"  would  not  accept  a  pension  from  the 
king,  lest  it  might  swerve  him  from  his  duty  to  the 
town  ;  when  Chancellor,  he  would  not  accept  five 
thousand  pounds  which  the  English  clergy  publicly 
offered  him,  for  public  service  done  as  chancellor. 
But  Webster  in  private  took  —  how  much  I  cannot 
tell!  Considering  all  things,  his  buyers'  wealth  and 
his  unthriftiness,  it  was  as  dishonorable  in  them  to 
bribe,  as  in  him  to  take  their  gift !  • 

To  gain  his  point,  alas !  he  sometimes  treated 
facts,  law,  constitution,  morality,  and  religion,  as  an 


*  "  Sed  lateri  nullus  comitem  circuradare  qujerlt, 

Quern  dat  purus  amor,  sed  quern  tulit  iinpia  nierces, 
Nee  quisquam  vero  pretium  largitur  amico, 
Quem  regat  ex  asquo,  vicibusque  regatur  ab  illo  : 
Sed  miserum  parva  stipe  munerat,  ut  pudibundos 
Exercere  sales  inter  consiUa  posslt." 

Pseuclo  Lucanus,  uhi  sup.  100,  el  seq. 

VOL.  I.  24 


278  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

advocate  treats  matters  at  the  bar.  Was  he  certain 
South  Carolina  had  no  constitutional  right  to  nul- 
lify ?  I  make  no  doubt  he  felt  so ;  but  in  his  lan- 
guage he  is  just  as  strong  when  he  declares  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  is  perfectly  constitutional ;  that 
slavery  caimot  be  in  California  and  New  Mexico ; 
just  as  confident  in  his  dreadful  mock  at  conscience, 
and  the  dear  God's  unchanging  Law.  He  heeded 
not  "  the  delegated  voice  of  God  "  which  speaks  in 
the  conscience  of  the  faithful  man. 

No  living  man  has  done  so  much  to  debauch  the 
conscience  of  the  nation ;  to  debauch  the  press,  the 
pulpit,  the  forum,  and  the  bar!  There  is  no  Higher 
Law,  quoth  he  ;  and  how  much  of  the  pulpit,  the 
press,  the  forum,  and  the  bar,  denies  its  God !  Read 
the  journals  of  the  last  week  for  proof  of  what  I 
say ;  and  read  our  history  since  March  of  '50.  He 
poisoned  the  moral  wells  of  society  with  his  lower 
law,  and  men's  consciences  died  of  the  murrain  of 
Ijjeasts,  which  came  because  they  drank  thereat. 

In  an  age  which  prizes  money  as  the  greatest  good 
and  counts  the  understanding  as  the  highest  human 
faculty,  the  man  who  is  to  lead  and  bless  the  world 
must  indeed  be  great  in  intellect,  but  also  great  in 
conscience,  greater  in  affection,  and  greatest  of  all 
things  in  his  soul.  Li  his  later  years,  Webster  was 
intellect,  and  little  more.  If  he  did  not  regard  the 
eternal  Right,  how  could  he  guide  a  nation  to  what 
is  useful  for  to-day?      If  he  scorned  the   Law  of 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  279 

God,  how  could  he  bless  the  world  of  men  ?  It  was 
by  this  fault  he  fell.  "  Those  who  murdered  Banquo, 
what  did  they  win  by  it  ?  " 

"  A  barren  sceptre  in  their  gripe, 


Thence  to  be  wrenched  with  an  unlineal  hand, 
No  son  of  theirs  succeeding." 

He  knew  the  cause  of  his  defeat,  and  in  the  last 
weeks  of  his  life  confessed  that  he  was  deceived ; 
that,  before  his  fatal  speech,  he  had  assurance  from 
the  North  and  South,  that,  if  he  supported  slavery, 
it  would  lead  him  into  place  and  power ;  bvit  now 
he  saw  the  mistake,  and  that  a  few  of  the  "  fanatics  " 
had  more  influence  in  America  than  he  and  all  the 
South  I  He  sinned  against  his  own  conscience,  and 
so  he  fell ! 

He  made  him  wings  of  slavery  to  gain  a  lofty 
eminence.  Those  wings  unfeathered  in  his  flight. 
For  one  and  thirty  months  he  fell,  until  at  last  he 
reached  the  tomb.  There,  on  the  sullen  shore,  a 
mighty  wreck,  great  Webster  lies. 

"  Is  this  the  man  in  Freedom's  cause  approved, 
The  man  so  great,  so  honored,  so  beloved  ? 
Where  is  the  heartfelt  worth  and  weight  of  soul, 
Which  labor  could  not  stoop,  nor  fear  control  ? 
Where  the  known  dignity,  the  stamp  of  awe. 
Which,  half  abashed,  the  proud  and  venal  saw  ? 
Where  the  calm  triumphs  of  an  honest  cause  ?  — 
AVhere  the  delightful  taste  of  just  applause  ? 


280  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

Oh,  lost  alike  to  action  and  repose, 

Unwept,  unpitled  in  the  worst  of  woes ; 

With  all  that  conscious,  undissembled  pride, 

Sold  to  the  insults  of  a  foe  defied  ; 

With  all  that  habit  of  familiar  fame. 

Doomed  to  exhaust  the  dregs  of  life  in  shame ! " 

Oh,  what  a  warning  was  his  fall ! 

"  To  dash  corruption  in  her  proud  career. 
And  teach  her  slaves  that  vice  was  born  to  fear." 

"  Oh  dumb  be  jjassion's  stormy  rage, 
When  he  who  might 
Have  lighted  up  and  led  his  age 
Falls  back  in  night." 

Had  he  been  faithful  to  his  own  best  words,  so  oft 
repeated,  how  he  would  have  stood  !  How  different 
would  have  been  the  aspect  of  the  North  and  the 
South  ;  of  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the  forum,  and  the 
court ! 

Had  he  died  after  the  treaty  of  1842,  how  different 
would  have  been  his  fame  ! 

Since  the  Revolution,  no  American  has  had  so 
noble  an  opportunity  as  Mr.  Webster  to  speak  a 
word  for  the  advancement  of  mankind.  There  was 
a  great  occasion :  slavery  was  clamorous  for  new 
power,  new  territory ;  was  invading  the  State  Rights 
of  the  North.  Earnest  men  in  the  North,  getting 
aroused  and  hostile  to  slavery,  were  looking  round 
for  some  able  man  to  take  the  political  guidance  of 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  281 

the  anti-slavery  feeling,  to  check  the  great  national 
crime,  and  help  end  it ;  they  were  asking  — 

"  Who  is  the  honest  man, — 
He  that  doth  still  and  strongly  good  pursue, 
To  God,  his  neighbor,  and  himself",  most  true  ; 

Whom  neither  fear  nor  fawning  can 
Unpin,  or  wrench  from  giving  all  their  due  ?  " 

Some  circumstances  seemed  to  point  to  Mr.  Webster 
as  the  man  ;  his  immense  oratorical  abilities,  his  long 
acquaintance  with  public  affairs,  his  conspicuous 
position,  his  noble  words  in  behalf  of  freedom,  begin- 
ning with  his  college  days  and  extending  over  many 
a  year,  —  all  these  were  powerful  arguments  in  his 
behalf.  The  people  had  always  been  indulgent  to 
his  faults,  allowing  him  a  wide  margin  of  public  and 
private  oscillation ;  the  North  was  ready  to  sustain 
him  in  all  generous  efforts  for  the  unalienable  rights 
of  man.  But  he  threw  away  the  great  moment  of 
his  life,  used  all  his  abilities  to  destroy  those  rights 
of  man,  and  builded  the  materials  of  honorable 
fame  into  a  monument  of  infamy  for  the  warning 
of  mankind.  Declaring  that  "  the  protection  of 
property"  was  "the  great  object  of  government,"  he 
sought  to  unite  the  Money  power  of  the  North  and 
the  Slave  power  of  the  South  into  one  great  instru- 
ment to  stifle  discussion,  and  withstand  religion,  and 
the  Higher  Law  of  God. 

Had   he   lived   and    labored   for   freedom    as   for 
24* 


282  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

slavery,  —  nay,  with  half  the  diligence  and  half  the 
power,  —  to-morrow,  all  the  North  would  rise  to 
make  him  their  President,  and  put  on  that  Olympian 
brow  the  wreath  of  honor  from  a  people's  hand. 
Then  he  would  have  left  a  name  like  Adams,  Jeffer- 
son, and  Washington ;  and  the  tears  of  every  good 
man  would  have  dropped  upon  his  tomb !  Had  he 
served  his  God  with  half  the  zeal  that  he  served  the 
South,  He  would  not,  in  his  age,  have  left  him 
naked  to  his  enemies !  If  Mr.  Webster  had  culti- 
vated the  moral,  the  afFectional,  the  religious  part  of 
his  nature  with  the  same  diligence  he  nursed  his 
power  of  speech,  w^hat  a  man  there  would  have 
been !  With  his  great  ability  as  an  advocate,  with 
his  eloquence,  his  magnetic  power,  in  his  position, 
—  a  Senator  for  twenty  years,  —  if  he  could  have 
attained  the  justice,  the  philanthropy,  the  religion  of 
Channing  or  of  FoUen,  or  of  many  a  modest  woman 
in  all  the  Christian  sects,  what  a  noble  spectacle 
should  we  have  seen  I  Then  the  nation  would  long 
since  have  made  him  President,  and  he  also  would 
have  revolutionized  men's  ideas  of  political  great- 
ness ;  "  the  bigot  would  have  ceased  to  persecute, 
the  despot  to  vex,  the  desolate  poor  to  suffer,  the 
slave  to  groan  and  tremble,  the  ignorant  to  commit 
crimes,  and  the  ill-contrived  law  to  engender  crim- 
inality." 

But  he  did  not  fall  all  at  once.     No  man  ever 
does.    Apostasy  is  not  a  sudden  sin.     Little  by  little 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  283 

he  came  to  the  ground.  Long  leaning,  he  leaned 
over  and  fell  down.  This  was  his  great  error  —  he 
sold  himself  to  the  money  power  to  do  service 
against  mankind.  The  form  of  service  became  con- 
tinually worse.  Was  he  conscious  of  this  corrup- 
tion ?  —  at  first  ?  But  shall  he  bear  the  blame  alone  ? 
Oh,  no !  Part  of  it  belongs  to  this  city,  which  cor- 
rupted him,  tempted  him  with  a  price,  bought  him 
with  its  gold!  Daniel  Webster  had  not  thrift. 
"  Poor  Richard "  was  no  saint  of  his.  He  loved 
luxury,  and  was  careless  of  wealth.  Boston  caught 
him  by  the  purse ;  by  that  she  led  him  to  his  mortal 
doom.  With  her  much  fair  speech  she  caused  him 
to  yield;  with  the  flattery  of  her  lips  she  deceived 
him.  Boston  was  the  Delilah  that  allured  him  ;  but 
oft  he  broke  the  withes  of  gold,  until  at  last,  with  a 
pension,  she  shore  off  the  seven  locks  of  his  head, 
his  strength  wpnt  from  him,  and  the  Philistines  took 
him  and  put  out  his  eyes,  brought  him  down  to 
Washington,  and  bound  him  with  fetters  of  brass. 
And  he  did  grind  in  their  prison-house ;  and  they 
said,  "  Our  God,  which  is  slavery,  hath  delivered 
into  ovir  hands  our  enemy,  the  destroyer  of  our  in- 
stitutions, who  slew  many  of  us."  Then,  having 
used  him  for  their  need,  they  thrust  the  man  away, 
deceived  and  broken-hearted! 

No  man  can  resist  infinite  temptation.  There 
came  a  peril  greater  than  he  could  bear.  Condemn 
the  sin  —  pity  the  offending  man.     The  tone  of  po- 


284  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

litical  morality  is  pitiably  low.  It  lowered  him,  and 
then  he  debased  the  morals  of  politics. 

Part  of  the  blame  belongs  to  the  New  England 
church,  which  honors  "  devoutness,"  and  sneers  at 
every  noble,  manly  life,  calling  men  saints  who  only 
pray,  all  careless  of  the  dead  men's  bones  which  glut 
the  whited  sepulchre.  The  churches  of  New  Eng- 
land were  waiting  to  proclaim  slavery,  and  renounce 
the  law  of  God.  The  disgrace  is  not  his  alone. 
But  we  must  blame  Mr.  Webster  as  we  blame  few 
men.  Society  takes  swift  vengeance  on  the  petty 
thief,  the  small  swindler,  and  rogues  in  rags  :  the  gal- 
lows kills  the  murderer,  while  for  men  in  high  office, 
with  great  abilities,  who  enact  iniquity  into  law ; 
who  enslave  thousands,  and  sow  a  continent  with 
thraldom,  to  bear  want  and  shame  and  misery  and 
sin ;  who  teach  as  political  ethics  the  theory  of  crime, 
—  for  them  there  is  often  no  earthly,  outward  pun- 
ishment, save  the  indignation  with  which  mankind 
scourges  the  memory  of  the  oppressor.  From  the 
judgment  of  men,  the  appeal  lies  to  the  judgment  of 
Cxod  :  He  only  knows  who  sins,  and  how  much. 
How  much  ]VIr.  Webster  is  to  be  pitied,  we  know 
right  well. 

Had  he  been  a  clergyman,  as  once  he  wished,  he 
might  have  passed  through  life  with  none  of  the 
outward  blemishes  which  now  deform  his  memory ; 
famed  for  his  gifts  and  graces  too,  for  eloquence,  and 
"  soundness   in   the   faith,"    "  his   praise   in  all   the 


DANIEL   AVEBSTER.  285 

churches."  Had  he  been  a  politician  in  a  better  age, 
—  when  it  is  not  thought  just  for  capitalists  to  buy- 
up  statesmen  in  secret,  for  politicians  clandestinely 
to  sell  their  services  for  private  gold,  or  for  clergy- 
men, in  the  name  of  God,  to  sanctify  all  popular 
crimes,  —  he  might  have  lifted  up  that  noble  voice 
continually  for  Truth  and  Right.  Who  could  not  in 
such  a  time  ?  The  straw  blows  with  the  wind. 
Bi|it,  alas  !  he  was  not  firm  enough  for  his  place ;  too 
weak  in  conscience  to  be  the  champion  of  Justice 
while  she  needs  a  champion.  Let  us  be  just  against 
the  wrong  he  wrought,  charitable  to  the  man  who 
wrought  the  wrong.  Conscience  compels  our  formi- 
dable blame  ;  the  affections  weep  their  pity  too. 

Like  Bacon,  whom  Mr.  Webster  resembles  in 
many  things,  save  industry  and  the  philosophic  mind, 
he  had  "no  moral  courage,  no  power  of  self-sacrifice 
or  self-denial ; "  with  strong  passions,  with  love  of 
luxury  in  all  its  forms,  with  much  pride,  great  fond- 
ness of  applause,  and  the  intensest  love  of  power; 
coming  to  Boston  poor,  a  lawyer,  without  thrift,  em- 
barking in  politics  with  such  companions  for  his  pri- 
vate and  his  public  life,  with  such  public  opinion  in 
the  State, —  that  honesty  is  to  serve  the  present  pur- 
poses of  your  party,  or  the  wealthy  men  who  control 
it ;  in  the  Church,  —  that  religion  consists  in  belief 
without  evidence,  in  ritual  sacraments,  in  verbal 
prayer,  —  is  it  wonderful  that  this  great  intellect 
went  astray  ?     See  how  corrupt  the  churches  are,  — 


286  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

the  leading  clergy  of  America  are  the  anointed  de- 
fenders of  man-stealing ;  see  how  corrupt  is  the 
State,  betraying  the  red  men,  enslaving  the  black, 
pillaging  Mexico ;  see  how  corrupt  is  trade,  which 
rules  the  State  and  Church,  dealing  in  men.  Con- 
necticut makes  whips  for  the  negro-driver.  New 
Hampshire  rears  the  negro-drivers  themselves.  Ships 
of  Maine  and  Rhode-Island  are  in  the  domestic 
slave-trade.  The  millionaires  of  Massachusetts  own 
men  in  Virginia,  Alabama,  Missouri!  The  leading 
men  in  Trade,  in  Church  and  State,  think  Justice  is 
not  much  more  needed  in  a  statesman  than  it  is 
needed  in  an  ox,  or  in  the  steel  which  shoes  his  hoof! 
Remember  these  things,  and  pity  Daniel  Webster, 
ambitious,  passionate,  unthrifty ;  and  see  the  ckcum- 
stances  which  weighed  him  down.  We  judge  the 
deeds  :  God  only  can  judge  the  man.  If  you  and  I 
have  not  met  the  temptation  which  can  overmaster 
us,  let  us  have  mercy  on  such  as  come  bleeding  from 
that  battle. 

His  calling  as  a  lawyer  was  somewhat  dangerous, 
leading  him  "  to  make  the  worse  appear  the  better 
reason  ;  "  to  seek  "  not  verity,  but  verisimilitude; "  to 
look  at  the  expedient  end,  not  to  inquire  if  his  means 
be  also  just ;  to  look  too  much  at  measures,  not 
enough  at  principles.  Yet  his  own  brother  Ezekiel 
went  safely  through  that  peril,  —  no  smell  of  that  fire 
on  his  garment. 

His  intercourse  with  politicians  was  full  of  moral 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  287 

peril.      How   few    touch    politics,   and   are   thence- 
forward clean! 

Boston  now  mourns  for  him  !  She  is  too  late  in 
her  weeping.  She  shovild  have  wept  her  warning 
when  her  capitalists  filled  his  right  hand  with  bribes. 
She  ought  to  have  put  on  sackcloth  when  the  speech 
of  March  7th  first  came  here.  She  should  have  hung 
her  flags  at  half-mast  when  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
became  a  law ;  then  she  only  fired  cannons,  and 
thanked  her  representative.  Webster  fell  prostrate, 
but  was  Boston  more  innocent  than  he  ?  Remember 
the  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven  men  that  thanked 
him  for  the  speech  which  touched  their  "  conscience," 
and  pointed  out  the  path  of  "  duty"  I  It  was  she  that 
ruined  him. 

She  bribed  him  in  1827,  and  often  since.  He  re- 
garded the  sums  thus  paid  as  a  retaining  fee,  and  at 
the  last  maintained  that  the  Boston  manufacturers 
were  still  in  his  debt ;  for  the  services  he  had  ren- 
dered them  by  defending  the  tarifl"  in  his  place  as 
Senator  were  to  them  worth  more  than  all  the  money 
he  received !  Could  a  man  be  honest  in  such  a 
position?  Alas  that  the  great  orator  had  not  the 
conscience  to  remember  at  first  that  man  shall  not 
live  by  bread  alone ! 

What  a  sad  life  was  his  !  His  wife  died,  —  a 
loving  woman,  beautiful,  and  tenderly  beloved  I     Of 


288  DANIEL   AVEBSTER. 

several  children,  all  save  one  have  gone  before  him 
to  the  tomb.  Sad  man,  he  lived  to  build  his  chil- 
dren's monument  I  Do  you  remember  the  melancholy- 
spectacle  in  the  street,  when  Major  Webster,  a  vic- 
tim of  the  Mexican  war,  was  by  his  father  laid  down 
in  yonder  tomb  ?  —  a  daughter,  too,  but  recently  laid 
low  I  How  poor  seemed  then  the  ghastly  pageant 
in  the  street,  empty  and  hollow  as  the  muffled 
drum ! 

What  a  sad  face  he  wore,  —  furrowed  by  passion, 
by  ambition,  that  noble  brow  scaiTcd  all  over  with 
the  records  of  a  hard,  sad  life.  Look  at  the  prints 
and  pictures  of  him  in  the  street.  I  do  not  wonder 
his  early  friends  abhor  the  sight.  It  is  a  face  of  sor- 
rows, —  private,  public,  secret  woes.  But  there  are 
pictures  of  that  face  in  earlier  years,  full  of  power, 
but  full  of  tenderness ;  the  mouth  feminine,  and  in- 
nocent as  a  girl's.  What  a  life  of  passion,  of  dark 
sorrow,  rolled  betwixt  the  two  I  In  that  ambition- 
stricken  face  his  mother  would  not  have  known  her 
child ! 

For  years  to  me,  he  has  seemed  like  one  of  the 
tragic  heroes  of  the  Grecian  tale,  pursued  by  fate  ; 
and  latterly,  the  saddest  sight  in  all  the  Western 
World,  —  widowed  of  so  much  he  loved,  and  grasp- 
ing at  what  was  not  only  vanity,  but  the  saddest 
vexation  of  the  heart.  I  have  long  mourned  for 
him,  as  for  no  living  or  departed  man.  He  blasted 
the  friends  of  man  with  scornful  lightning :  him,  if 


DANIEL  WEBSTER.  289 

1  could,  I  would  not  blast,  but  only  bless  continually 
and  evermore. 

You  remember  the  last  time  he  spoke  in  Boston ; 
the  procession,  last  summer,  you  remember  it  well. 
What  a  sad  and  care-worn  countenance  was  that  of 
the  old  man,  welcomed  with  the  mockery  of  ap- 
plause I  You  remember,  when  the  orator,  wise- 
headed  and  friendly-hearted,  came  to  thank  him  for 
his  services,  he  said  not  a  word  of  "  saving  the 
Union ; "  of  the  "  compromise  measures,"  not  a 
word.  That  farce  was  played  out . —  it  was  only  the 
tragic  facts  which  were  left ;  but  for  his  great  ser- 
vices he  thanked  him. 

And  when  Webster  replied,  he  said,  "  Here  in 
Boston  I  am  not  disowned ;  at  least,  here  I  am  not 
disowned."  No,  Daniel  Webster,  you  are  not  dis- 
owned in  Boston.  So  long  as  I  have  a  tongue  to- 
teach,  a  heart  to  feel,  you  shall  never  be  disowned.. 
I  must  be  just.     I  shall  be  tender  too ! 

It  was  partly  by  Boston's  sin  that  the  great  man 
fell !  I  pity  his  victims ;  you  pity  them,  too.  But 
I  pity  him  more,  oh,  far  more !  Pity  the  oppressed, 
will  you  ?  Will  you  not  also  pity  the  oppressor  in 
his  sin  ?  Look  there !  See  that  face,  so  manly 
strong,  so  maiden  meek  !  Hear  that  voice  !  "  Neither 
do  I  condemn  thee  !  Go,  and  sin  no  more  !  "  Listen 
to  the  last  words  of  the  Crucified  :  "  Father,  forgive 
them  ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

The  last  time  he  was  in  Faneuil  Hall,  —  it  was 

VOL.  I.  25 


290  DANIEL  WEBSTEK. 

"  Faneuil  Hall  open ; "  once  it  had  been  shut ;  —  it 
was  last  May  —  the  sick  old  man  —  yon  remember 
the  feeble  look  and  the  sad  face,  the  tremulous  voice. 
He  came  to  solicit  the  vote  of  the  Methodists,  —  a 
vain  errand.  I  felt  then  that  it  was  his  last  time, 
and  forbore  to  look  upon  that  saddened  counte- 
nance. 

The  last  time  he  was  in  the  Senate,  it  was  to  hear 
his  successor  speak.  He  stayed  an  hour,  and  heard 
Charles  Sumner  demonstrate  that  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  was  not  good  religion,  nor  good  Con- 
stitution, nor  good  law.  The  old  and  the  new 
stood  face  to  face,  —  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  and 
Justice.  What  an  hour!  What  a  sight!  What 
thoughts  ran  through  the  great  man's  mind,  mingled 
with  what  regrets !  For  slavery  never  set  well  on 
liim.  It  was  a  Nessus'  shirt  on  our  Hercules,  and 
the  poison  of  his  own  arrows  rankled  now  in  his 
own  bones.  Had  Mr.  Webster  been  true  to  his 
history,  true  to  his  heart,  true  to  his  intention  and 
his  promises,  he  would  himself  have  occupied  that 
ground  two  years  before.  Then  there  would  have 
been  no  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  no  chain  round  the 
court  house,  no  man-stealing  in  Boston ;  but  the 
"  Defender  of  the  Constitution,"  become  the  "  De- 
fender of  the  unalienable  rights  of  man,"  would 
have  been  the  President  of  the  United  States  I  But 
he  had  not  the  courage  to  deliver  the  speech  he 
made.     No   man  can  serve  two  masters,  —  Justice 


DANIEL   WEBSTER.  2'91 

and  Ambition.  The  mill  of  God  grinds  slow  but 
dreadful  fine ! 

He  came  home  to  Boston,  and  went  down  to 
Marshfield  to  die.  An  old  man,  broken  with  the 
storms  of  State,  went  home  —  to  die  !  His  neigh- 
bors came  to  ease  the  fall,  to  look  upon  the  disap- 
pointment, and  give  him  what  cheer  they  could. 
To  him,  to  die  was  gain ;  life  was  the  only  loss. 
Yet  he  did  not  wish  to  die :  he  surrendered,  —  he 
did  not  yield. 

At  the  last  end,  his  friends  were  about  him ;  his 
dear  ones  —  his  wife,  his  son  (the  last  of  six  children 
he  had  loved).  Name  by  name  he  bade  them  all 
farewell,  and  all  his  friends,  man  by  man.  Two 
colored  servants  of  his  were  there,  —  whom,  it  is 
said,  he  had  helped  purchase  out  of  slavery,  and  bless 
with  freedom's  life.  They  watched  over  the  bedside 
of  the  dying  man.  The  kindly  doctor  sought  to 
sweeten  the  bitterness  of  death  with  medicated  skill ; 
and,  when  that  failed,  he  gave  the  great  man  a  little 
manna  which  fell  down  from  heaven  three  thousand 
years  ago,  and  shepherd  David  gathered  up  and  kept 
it  in  a  psalm  :  "  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd  :  though  I 
walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I 
will  fear  no  evil ;  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort 
me." 

And  the  great  man  faltered  out  his  last  words, 
"  That  is  what  1  want  —  thy  rod,  thy  rod ;  thy  staff, 
thy  staff."     That  heart  had  never  wholly  renounced 


292  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

its  God.  Oh,  no !  it  had  scoffed  at  His  "  Higher 
Law  ;  "  but,  in  the  heart  of  hearts,  there  was  religious 
feeling  still! 

Just  four  years  after  his  great  speech,  on  the  24th 
of  October,  all  that  was  mortal  of  Daniel  Webster 
went  down  to  the  dust,  and  the  soul  to  the  motherly 
bosom  of  God !  Men  mourn  for  him :  he  heeds  it 
not.  The  great  man  has  gone  where  the  servant  is 
free  from  his  master,  where  the  weary  are  at  rest, 
where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling. 

"  No  further  seek  his  merits  to  disclose, 

Or  draw  his  frailties  from  their  dread  abode ; 
There  they  alike  in  trembling  hope  repose, 
The  bosom  of  his  Father  and  his  God  ! " 

Massachusetts  has  lost  her  great  adopted  son. 
Has  lost  ?  Oh,  no !  "  I  still  live"  is  truer  than  the 
sick  man  knew :  — 

"  He  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes 
And  perfect  -witness  of  all-judging  God." 

His  memory  will  long  live  with  us,  still  dear  to  many 
a  loving  heart.  What  honor  shall  we  pay  ?  Let  the 
State  go  out  mindful  of  his  noblest  services,  yet  tear- 
ful for  his  fall ;  sad  that  he  would  fain  have  filled  him 
with  the  husks  the  swine  do  eat,  and  no  man  gave  to 
him.  Sad  and  tearful,  let  her  remember  the  force  of 
circumstances,  and  dark  temptation's  secret  power. 
Let  her  remember  that  while  we  know   what   he 


DANIEL    WEBSTER.  293 

yielded  to,  and  what  is  sin,  God  knows  what  also  is 
resisted,  and  he  alone  knows  who  the  sinner  is. 
Massachusetts,  the  dear  old  mother  of  us  all  I  let  her 
warn  her  children  to  fling  away  ambition,  and  let 
her  charge  them,  every  one,  that  there  is  a  God  who 
must  indeed  be  worshipped,  and  a  Higher  Law 
which  must  be  kept,  though  Gold  and  Union  fail. 
Then  let  her  say  to  them,  "  Ye  have  dwelt  long 
enough  in  this  mountain ;  turn  ye,  and  take  your 
journey  into  the  land  of  Freedom,  which  the  Lord 
your  God  giveth  you !  " 

Then  let  her  lift  her  eyes  to  Heaven,  and  pray :  — 

"  Sweet  Mercy  !  to  the  gates  of  heaven 
This  statesman  lead,  his  sins  forgiven ; 
The  rueful  conflict,  the  heart  riven 

With  vain  endeavor, 
And  memory  of  earth's  bitter  leaven, 

Effaced  for  ever  ! " 


But 


"  why  to  him  confine  the  j^rayer, 

While  kindred  thoughts  and  yearnings  bear, 
On  the  frail  heart,  the  purest  share 

With  all  that  live  ? 
The  best  of  what  we  do  and  are, 

Great  God,  forgive  ! " 

25* 


THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 


SOME    THOUGHTS 


NEW   ASSAULT   UPON  FREEDOM  IN   AMERICA, 


GENERAL   STATE   OF  THE   COUNTRY 


IN  RELATION   THEREUNTO, 


SET  FORTH   IX    A  DISCOURSE   PREACHED  AT   THE   MUSIC    HALL, 
IN    BOSTON,   ON   SUNDAY,   FEBRUARY   12,   1854. 


DISCOURSE. 


THE    DARK    PLACES    OF    THE    EARTH    ARE    FULL    OF    THE    HABITA- 
TIONS  OF  CRUELTY.  —  Psalm  Ixxiv.  20. 

Before  next  Sunday  it  will  be  nine  years  since  I 
first  spoke  to  you  in  this  city,  coming  at  your  request. 
In  the  first  discourse  I  spoke  of  the  Necessity  of 
Religion  for  the  Conduct  of  the  Individual  and  the 
State.  Since  that  time  several  crises  have  occurred 
in  our  national  affairs  which  have  led  me  to  en- 
deavor to  apply  the  great  principles  of  Religion  to 
the  political  measures  of  this  nation.  It  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  year  since  any  such  event  has 
called  for  such  treatment  in  this  place.  But  now 
another  assault  has  been  made  upon  the  liberty  of 
man,  in  America,  and  so  to-day  I  ask  your  attention 
to  some  Thoughts  on  the  new  Assault  upon  Free- 
dom in  America,  and  the  general  State  of  the  Coun- 
try in  Relation  thereunto. 


298  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

To  comprehend  the  matter  clearly,  and  the  cause 
and  the  consequences  of  this  special  iniquity  now 
contemplated,  we  must  begin  far  off  and  study  the 
general  course  of  human  conduct  in  America,  —  the 
last  new  continent  left  as  a  stage  for  the  develop- 
ment of  mankind. 

The  transfer  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tribe  to  this 
Western  continent  is  one  of  the  most  important 
events  which  has  taken  place  in  the  last  thousand 
years.  Since  the  Protestant  Reformation,  which 
helped  forward  the  ideas  that  were  the  banner  of  the 
march,  nothing  has  proved  so  significant  as  the 
Westward  movement  of  this  swarm  of  men,  not  so 
much  coming  as  driven  out  from  the  old  close-pent 
European  hive,  and  then  settling  down  on  the  new 
continent. 

A  few  Romano- Celtic  Frenchmen  had  already 
moored  their  venturous  shallops  in  the  American 
water,  and  pitched  their  military  tents  in  what  was 
else  only  the  great  wilderness  of  North  America, 
roamed  over  by  wild  beasts  and  wild  men,  also  the 
children  of  the  woods. 

The  Spanish  tribe  had  come  before  either,  and 
with  military  greediness  were  eating  up  the  wealthy 
South.  But  Spain  could  set  only  a  poor  and  per- 
ishing scion  in  the  new  world.  That  was  always 
an  evil  tree  to  graft  from,  not  producing  good  fruit. 
Besides,  an  old  nation,  in  a  state  of  decay,  founds 
no  healthy  colonies.    The  children  of  a  decomposing 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  299 

State,  time-worn  and  debauched,  though  with  a 
whole  continent  before  them  —  what  could  they  ac- 
complish for  mankind?  They  inherited  the  idleness, 
the  ferocity,  the  military  avarice,  the  superstition  and 
heinous  cruelty  of  a  people  never  remarkable  for  any 
high  traits  of  character.  Two  thousand  years  ago, 
the  Celto-Iberic  tribe  mingled  with  the  Roman ;  then 
with  the  Visi-Goth,  the  Moor,  the  Jew  —  war  pro- 
claiming the  savage  nuptials,  —  and  modern  Spain 
is  the  issue  of  this  six -fold  juncture.  This  composite 
tribe  of  men  had  once  some  martial  vigor;  nay, 
some  commercial  enterprise,  but  it  has  done  little  to 
advance  mankind  by  the  invention  of  new  ideas,  the 
organization  thereof,  or  the  administration  of  what 
others  devised  and  organized  ;  the  meanest  and  most 
cruel  of  the  Christian  nations,  to-day  she  seems 
made  but  of  the  leavings  of  the  world.  To  Co- 
lumbus, adventurous  Italy's  most  venturous  son,  she 
gave,  grudgingly,  three  miserable  ships,  wherewith 
that  daring  genius  sailed  through  the  classic  and 
mediaeval  darkness  which  covered  the  great  Atlantic 
deep,  opening  to  mankind  a  new  world,  and  new 
destination  therein.  No  Queen  wore  ever  a  diadem 
so  precious  as  those  pearls  which  Isabella  dropped 
into  the  Western  sea,  a  bridal  gift  whereby  the  Old 
World,  well  endowed  with  Art  and  Science,  and  the 
hoarded  wealth  of  experience,  wed  America,  rich 
only  in  her  gifts  from  Nature  and  her  hopes  in  time. 
The  three   most  valuable  contributions    Spain  has 


300  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

made  to  mankind  are  the  Consolato  del  mare,  the 
Barcelonian  bud  whence  modern  mercantile  law  has 
slowly  blossomed  forth ;  the  Three  Scant  Ships  a 
wealthy  nation  furnished  to  the  Genoese  navigator 
whom  the  world's  instinct  pushed  Westward  in  quest 
of  continents ;  and  Don  Quixote,  a  masterly  satire 
on  a  form  of  folly  then  old-fashioned  and  fast  getting 
extinct.  These  are  the  chief  contributions  Spain 
has  dropped  into  the  almsbox  of  the  world.  Coarse 
olives,  huge  onions,  strong  red  wine  —  these  are  the 
offerings  of  the  Spanish  mind  in  the  world's  fair  of 
modern  times.  Since  the  days  of  Seneca  and  Lu- 
can,  perhaps  Servetus  is  her  foremost  man,  fantastic 
minded  yet  rich  in  germs  of  fertile  thought.  Moor- 
ish and  Hebrew  greatness  has  indeed  been  cradled 
on  her  soil,  but  thereof  Spain  was  not  the  mother. 

Long  before  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  Spaniard 
came  to  America ;  greedy  of  money,  hungering  for 
reputation  —  the  glory  of  the  Gascon  stock.  He 
brought  the  proud  but  thin  and  sickly  blood  of  a 
decaying  tribe ;  the  traditionary  institutions  of  the 
past  —  Theocracy,  Monarchy,  Aristocracy,  Despot- 
ocracy,  the  dominion  of  the  master  over  the  ex- 
ploitered  slave.  He  brought  the  mass-book  and 
legends  of  unnatural  saints,  —  the  symbols  of  super- 
stition and  ecclesiastic  tyranny  ;  the  sword,  —  the 
last  argument  of  Spanish  kings,  the  symbol  of  mili- 
tary despotism  ;  fetters  and  the  bloodhound.  He 
brought  no  great  ideas,  new  trees  started  in  the  old 


THE    NEBRASKA    QUESTION.  301 

nursery  of  the  past ;  no  noble  sentiments,  the  seed- 
corn  of  ideal  harvests  yet  to  be.  He  shared  only 
the  material  momentum  of  the  human  race  which 
dashed  his  Eastern  body  on  the  Western  world. 
He  butchered  the  Indians  who  disbelieved  "  the  Im- 
maculate conception  of  our  blessed  Lady"  as  taught 
by  men  of  most  Titanic,  all-devouring  lust.  He  set 
up  the  Inquisition,  and  soon  had  monks  and  nuns 
believing  what  heathen  Guatemozin  would  have 
found  bitterer  than  fire.  The  Spaniard  attempted 
to  found  no  institution  which  was  an  improvement 
on  what  he  left  behind  —  he  reproduced  only  the 
Church,  the  State,  the  Community,  and  Family,  of 
the  middle  ages.  He  hated  arts,  letters,  liberty ; 
even  the  mass  of  the  people  seemed  to  care  nothing 
for  freedom  of  body  or  of  mind. 

The  Spaniard  settled  in  the  fairest  parts  of  the 
new  found  land,  amongst  tribes  already  far  ad- 
vanced toward  civilization  —  the  world's  foremost 
barbarians.  He  slew  them  with  merciless  rapacity ; 
took  their  stone-built  cities ;  occupied  their  land 
better  tilled  than  the  gardens  of  Castile ;  he  seized 
their  abundant  gold ;  stole  their  wives  and  their 
maidens.  At  home  the  people  were  wonted  to  bull- 
fights, wherein  the  valiant  Matador  risks  his  own 
worthless  body,  and  to  Autos  da  Fe  where  the 
cowardly  priests  burn  their  freethinking  sister  with- 
out hazarding  their  own  miisance  of  a  life ;  in 
America  the  Spaniard  rioted  in  the  murder  of  men. 

VOL.  I.  26 


302  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

The  pictured  horrors  of  De  Bry  report  only  a  drop 
of  the  blood  so  torturously  shed ;  yet  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  they  terrified  all  Europe  —  Latin, 
German,  French,  English,  Dutch. 

To  America,  Spain  transferred  the  superstition 
and  tyranny  of  mediaeval  Europe,  its  four-fold  des- 
potism, —  ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  domestic. 
She  reinvented  Negro  Slavery.  Six  thousand  years 
ago,  before  the  "  flood,"  yea  before  mythological 
Cain  had  been  conceived  by  a  Hebrew  head,  Egypt, 
it  seems,  was  guilty  of  this  crime.  In  the  middle 
ages  Negro  Slavery  was  an  art  wellnigh  lost. 
Spain,  first  of  the  Christian  nations,  enforced  re- 
ligion with  the  knife,  and  beheaded  men  for  heresy ; 
she  rolled  the  Inquisition  as  a  sweet  morsel  under 
her  tongue ;  her  sovereigns,  who  extinguished  the 
brand  which  smoked  on  the  national  hearth  yet 
warm  with  Gothic  liberty,  who  butchered  the  Moors 
and  banished  the  plundered  Jews,  were  for  such 
services  styled  "  the  Catholic ! "  Spain  reannexed 
Negro  Slavery  to  herself,  and  therewith  stained  the 
soil  of  America.  Therein  she  broke  not  the  con- 
tinuity of  her  history,  the  succession  of  rapine, 
piracy,  cruel  outpouring  of  blood.  Not  Italian 
Columbus,  but  Iberian  Cortes  and  Pizarro,  were  the 
types  of  Spain ;  not  Las  Casas,  but  Torquemada. 

Behold  now  the  condition  of  Spanish  America. 
Its  most  flourishing  part  is  an  empire,  Avith  the 
house   of  Braeranza  at  its   head  —  an  imitation  of 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  303 

the  old  world,  a  despotism  throned  on  bayonets. 
There  are  two  empires  in  Tropic  America  —  Hayti 
and  Brazil ;  the  foremost  tradition  of  Africa,  the  hind- 
most of  Europe  set  down  on  American  soil.  The 
Negro  empire  appears  the  most  successful,  the  most 
promising.  There  alone  is  no  hereditary  slavery. 
Over  Cuba,  France  and  England  still  hold  up  the 
feeble  hands  of  Spain  —  whence  at  last  freedom 
seems  dropping  into  the  Slave's  expectant  lap.  The 
rest  of  Spanish  America  has  the  form  of  a  republic  — 
a  republic  whose  only  permanent  constitution  is  a 
Cartridge-box,  which  blows  up  once  a  year.  Look 
at  Mexico  —  I  am  glad  she  is  going  swiftly  back  to 
the  form  of  despotism  ;  she  is  capable  of  no  other  re- 
ality. How  the  Western  vultures  fly  thitherward ! 
Where  the  carcass  of  a  nation  rots  there  will  the  filli- 
busters  be  gathered  together.  Every  raven  in  the 
hungry  flock  of  American  politicians  looks  that  way, 
wipes  his  gi'cedy  beak,  prunes  his  wings,  and  screams 
"  Manifest  Destiny ! " 

In  South  America  there  are  ten  "  Republics." 
They  cover  three  and  a  half  millions  of  square  miles, 
and  contain  twelve  million  men.  But  they  do  less 
for  mankind  than  Holland ;  nay,  Basil  and  Zwrich 
do  more  for  the  human  race  than  these  "  Republics," 
which  only  blot  the  continent.  No  Idea  is  cradled 
in  Spanish  America ;  no  books  are  written  there ; 
none  read  but  books  of  "  Devotion,"  which  Igno- 
rance long  since  wrote.     Old   Spain   imports  from 


304  THE    NEBRASKA    QUESTION. 

France  the  filthiest  novels  of  the  age ;  new  Spain 
only  the  yet  more  deadly  books  of  Catholic  "  Devo- 
tion." The  "  laws  "  of  the  Chilian  "  Republic  "  are 
printed  in  Spain,  where  no  Chilian  ship  ever  sailed. 
The  Amazon  has  eighty  thousand  miles  of  navigable 
water,  —  near  a  hundi-ed  thousand,  say  some,  the 
survey  is  conjectural,  —  and  drains  into  the  lap  of 
America,  a  tropic  basin,  the  largest,  the  richest  on 
the  globe,  with  more  good  land  than  all  Europe 
owns ;  therein  streams  larger  than  the  Danube  dis- 
charge their  freight.  But  only  a  single  steamer 
disturbs  the  alligator  on  its  mighty  breast  —  that 
steamer  built  and  owned  at  New  York.  Para  at  its 
mouth  is  more  than  three  hundred  years  old,  yet  has 
not  twenty  thousand  souls.  If  the  South  American 
"  Republics "  were  to  perish  this  day,  the  world 
would  hardly  lose  a  valuable  experiment  in  Spanish 
political  or  social  life,  hardly  a  visible  promise  of 
future  prosperity ;  so  badly  flourish  the  Spanish 
scions  set  in  the  green  soil  of  America,  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  old  institutions  of  the  middle  ages. 
Slavery  is  the  one  idea  of  the  Spanish  tribes  —  here 
African,  there  Indian  or  Caucasian. 

One  hundred  and  thirty  years  after  Genoese  Co- 
lumbus had  planted  the  Spanish  Cross  in  the  new 
world  — "  sword  in  hand  and  splendidly  arrayed," 
—  from  a  little  vessel,  leaky,  and  with  a  "^\Tack 
in  the  main   beam   amidships,"   the   Anglo-Saxons 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  305 

dropped  their  anchor  in  Massachusetts  bay,  circled 
then  with  savage  woods  ;  they  drew  up  a  "  compact," 
chose  their  "  Governor "  for  one  year ;  rested  and 
worshipped  on  Sunday ;  the  next  day  landed  at 
"  New  Plymouth,"  thanking  God.  They  came,  a 
slip  from  a  young  tree  full  of  hardy  life.  Four  stout 
roots — Angle,  Saxon,  Danish,  Norman,  —  united 
their  old  fantastic  twists  and  joined  in  this  one 
tough  and  rugged  stem,  then  quadruply  buttressed 
below,  now  how  widely  branched  abroad  in  every 
climate  of  the  world!  Fresh  blood  was  in  those 
Anglo-Saxon  veins ;  strong,  red,  heathen  blood,  not 
long  before  inoculated  with  Christianity  which  yet 
took  most  kindly  in  all  Teutonic  veins. 

These  Pilgrims  had  in  them  the  ethnologic  idio- 
syncrasy of  the  Anglo-Saxon  —  his  restless  disposi- 
tion to  invade  and  conquer  other  lands  ;  his  haughty 
contempt  of  humbler  tribes,  which  leads  him  to  sub- 
vert, enslave,  kill,  and  exterminate  ;  his  fondness  for 
material  things,  preferring  use  to  beauty ;  his  love  of 
personal  liberty,  yet  coupled  with  most  profound  re- 
spect for  peaceful  and  established  law ;  his  inborn 
skill  to  organize  things  to  a  mill,  men  to  a  company, 
a  community,  tribes  to  a  federated  State ;  and  his 
slow,  solemn,  inflexible,  industrious,  and  unconquer- 
able will. 

They  brought  with  them  much  of  the  tradition  of 
the  human  race,  the  guidings  and  warnings  of  expe- 
rience ;  a  great  deal  of  superstition,  of  tyranny  not 

26* 


306  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

a  little,  —  ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  domestic. 
They  brought  the  sword,  —  that  symbol  of  military 
despotism  must  yet  fight  on  freedom's  side;  but 
they  loved  better  the  axe,  the  wooden  shovel  —  the 
best  they  had,  —  the  plough,  the  swine,  the  ox,  tools 
of  productive  industrial  civilization,  types  of  toil  and 
cooperative  freedom.  For  the  Mass-Book  they  had 
the  Bible :  it  w^as  a  free  Bible ;  let  him  read  that 
listeth.  No  doubt  the  Bible  contained  the  imperfec- 
tion of  the  men  and  ages  concerned  in  writing  it. 
The  hay  tastes  of  the  meadow  where  it  grew,  of  the 
weather  when  it  w^as  made,  and  smells  of  the  barn 
wherein  it  has  been  kept ;  nay  the  breath  of  the 
oxen  housed  underneath  comes  down  to  market  in 
every  load.  But  in  its  many-colored  leaves,  the 
Bible  likewise  holds  the  words  of  great  men,  free 
and  making  free  ;  it  was  full  of  the  old  blossoms  of 
piety,  and  rich  in  buds  for  new  and  glorious  life,  aye, 
and  beauty  too.  The  cup  of  prophets  mainly,  not 
of  priests,  it  ran  over  with  water  of  life  from  the 
mythologic  well  in  the  wilderness  and  Bethesda's 
pool  which  angels  stirred  to  healing  power ;  —  it  gave 
men  vigorous  strength  and  hardy  life.  Instead  of 
the  bloodhound,  the  Pilgrims  sent  the  schoolmaster 
to  his  work ;  —  they  put  their  fetters  on  the  little 
streams  that  run  among  the  hills,  and  those  river- 
gods  must  saw,  and  grind,  and  spin  for  mortal  men ; 
not  the  Inquisition,  but  the  Printing  Press,  was  the 
type  and  symbol  of  this  Northern  work. 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  307 

They  had  the  traditions  of  the  human  race,  but 
also  its  momentum  acquired  in  the  movement  of 
many  a  thousand  years.  They  brought  the  best  po- 
litical institutions  the  world  had  then  known.  They 
had  the  English  Common  Law,  —  which  had  slowly 
got  erected  in  the  practice  of  this  liberty-loving  peo- 
ple, its  Cyclopean  Walls  built  up  by  the  Lesbian 
rule, — with  its  forms  and  precedents,  its  methodical 
schemes  of  procedure,  itself  a  popular  judicium  rus- 
ticmn;  they  had  the  habit  of  local  self-government; 
the  right  —  though  then  not  well  understood  —  of 
popular  legislation,  also  founded  in  immemorial 
usage ;  dim  notions  and  the  certain  practice  of  rep- 
resentative government  —  the  Democracy  of  Law- 
makmg ;  the  trial  by  Jury  —  the  Democracy  of  Law- 
administration.  They  brought  Congregational  Prot- 
estantism—  the  Democracy  of  Christianity,  involving, 
what  they  neither  granted  nor  knew,  the  universal 
right  of  search  for  truth  and  justice,  the  natural  right 
to  take  or  reject,  as  a  man's  own  spirit  should  require. 

Besides  the  organized  institutions  —  visible  as 
tools  of  industry  or  politics,  or  invisible  in  literature, 
science,  settled  and  admitted  principles  of  private 
morality  or  of  public  law,  —  which  represent  the 
history  and  achievements  of  mankind,  they  brought 
also  Ideas  not  organized  in  either  form  of  institution, 
and  sentiments  not  then  translated  into  conscious 
thought.  These  represented  man's  natural  instinct 
of   progress  and   the  momentum  he  had  gained  in 


308  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

history ;  they  were  to  become  institutions  and  facts 
in  future  time. 

When  the  Puritan  founded  his  colonies  in  New 
England,  there  were  other  Anglo-Saxon  settlements 
on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  Jamestown  was  founded  in 
1607.  Other  settlements  followed.  The  same  Anglo- 
Saxon  blood  flowed  South  as  well  as  North ;  the 
same  traditions  and  institutions  were  with  both. 
But  the  Anglo-Saxons  North  brought  institutions, 
ideas,  and  feelings  quite  unlike  those  of  their  South- 
ern fellows.  The  motive  for  immigrating  was  alto- 
gether unlike.  New  England  was  a  religious  colony, 
—  mainly  composed  of  persecuted  men  who  fled 
Westward  because  they  had  ideas  which  could  not 
be  set  up  in  the  Eastern  world.  Thrice  the  May- 
flower crossed  the  sea,  coming  to  Plymouth,  to  Sa- 
lem, to  Boston ;  each  time  bringing  veritable  Pil- 
grims who  came  from  a  religious  motive,  and  sought 
religious  ends.  This  was  likewise  the  case  with  the 
primitive  settlers  of  Pennsylvania.  The  South  was 
not  settled  by  religious  colonies.  The  primitive  dif- 
ference in  the  seed  has  continually  appeared  in  the 
growth  thence  accruing ;  in  the  policy  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  South  and  North.  The  same  year 
which  brought  the  Puritan  Pilgrims  to  New  Eng- 
land bore  a  quite  different  freight  to  Virginia.  In 
1620,  a  Dutch  captain  carried  thither  some  twenty 
Africans   who  were  sold  as   slaves   into   perpetual 


THE   NEBKASKA   QUESTION.  309 

bondage  —  themselves  and  their  children.  Thus  the 
old  sin  of  Egypt,  half  omitted  and  half  forgotten  in 
classic  and  mediaeval  times,  rediscovered  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  fixed  by  despots,  —  a  loathly  plague- 
spot  —  on  the  tropic  regions  of  America,  was  brought 
North,  adopted  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  South, 
and  set  a  going  at  Jamestown.  It  excited  no  aston- 
ishment. All  the  "  Christian  "  world  then  sold  pris- 
oners of  M^ar  for  slaves.  Thus  early  did  Negro 
Slavery  become  an  "  institution  "  of  the  South. 

But  all  things  are  double :  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
North  there  were  two  contending  elements.  One 
represented  old  institutions,  and  wished  to  stop 
therewith.  It  loved  despotocracy  in  the  family, 
aristocracy  in  the  community,  monarchy  in  the 
state,  and  theocracy  in  the  church :  it  opposed  the 
natural  human  rights  of  the  servant  in  the  family, 
of  the  laborer  in  the  community,  of  the  people  in 
the  State,  of  the  layman  in  the  church ;  it  favored 
the  rule  of  the  master,  the  lord,  the  king,  the  priest. 
This  element  was  old,  ancestral,  stationary  if  not 
retrogressive ;  it  was  also  powerful.  In  this  the 
Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Spaniard  were  alike. 

The  other  element  was  the  instinct  for  progressive 
development ;  the  Sentiments  not  idealized  into  con- 
scious thoughts ;  the  Ideas  not  organized  into  insti- 
tutions. There  was  a  feeling  of  the  equality  of  all 
men  in  the  substance  of  their  human  nature,  and 


310  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

consequently  in  all  natural  rights,  howsoever  diverse 
in  natural  powers,  in  transmitted  distinction  and 
riches,  or  in  acquired  culture,  money,  and  station. 
Now  and  then  this  feeling  had  broken  out  in  a 
"  Jack  Cade's  insurrection,"  or  a  "  Peasant's  war." 
But  in  the  seventeenth  century  it  found  no  distinct 
expression  as  a  thought.  Perhaps  it  was  not  an 
idea  with  any  man  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  ; 
it  was  the  stuff  ideas  are  made  of.  What  other 
feelings  are  there,  one  day  to  become  ideas,  then 
acts,  the  world's  victorious  life !  Lay  down  your 
ear  to  the  great  ocean  of  humanity,  and  as  the  spirit 
of  God  moves  on  the  face  of  this  deep,  listen  to  the 
low  tone  of  the  great  ground  swell,  and  interpret  the 
ripple  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  while,  all  above,  the 
surface  is  calm  as  a  maiden's  dreamless  sleep.  In 
these  days,  what  is  it  that  we  hear  at  the  bottom  of 
the  world  as  the  eternal  tide  of  human  history  meets 
with  the  sand  bars  cast  down  in  many  an  ancient 
storm !     Thereof  will  I  speak  not  now. 

This  feeling  came  slowly  to  an  idea.  With  many 
stumblings  and  wanderings  it  went  forth,  blindfold 
as  are  all  the  instinctive  feelings  —  whereunto  only 
God  not  man  is  Eye,  —  not  knowing  whither  it 
went  or  even  intended  to  go.  See  what  has  been 
done,  or  at  least  commenced. 

I.  They  protested  against  Theocracy  in  the  church. 
"  Let  us  have  a  church  without  an  altar  or  a  Bishop ; 


THE    NEBRASKA    QUESTION.  311 

a  service  with  no  mass-book,  no  organ,  no  surplice, 
each  congregation  subject  only  to  the  Lord,  not  to 
man,"  said  the  Puritan  —  and  he  had  it :  "  Yea," 
answered  the  Quaker,  "  and  with  no  hireling  minis- 
ter, no  outward  sacrament,  no  formal  prayer  of 
words ;  the  church  is  they  that  love  the  Lord ;  it 
takes  all  the  church  to  preach  all  the  gospel,  and 
without  that  cannot  all  mankind  be  saved  !  "  "  No 
vicarious  sprinkling  of  babies,  but  the  voluntary 
plunging  of  men,"  cried  the  Anabaptist.  Thereat 
the  theocratic  Puritan  lifted  his  hands  and  scourged 
the  Baptist  and  smote  the  Quaker  stone  dead.  But 
the  palm-tree  of  toleration  sprang  out  of  Mary 
Dyer's  grave.  The  theocracy  got  routed  in  many 
a  well-contested  fight ;  in  this  city  of  the  Puritans, 
the  Catholic,  the  Quaker,  the  Anabaptist,  the  Jew, 
and  the  Unitarian  may  worship  or  worship  not,  just 
as  they  will.  But  this  fight  is  not  over ;  yet  it  is 
plain  how  the  battle  is  going.  The  Theocracy  is 
doomed  to  the  cave  of  Pope  and  Pagan.  Let  us 
give  it  our  blessing  —  as  it  goes.  The  Puritan  fled 
from  Episcopal  England  to  tolerant  Holland,  to  the 
wilderness  of  America.  But  he  brought  more  than 
Puritanism  along  with  him,  —  Humanity  came  in  the 
same  ship.  The  great  warfare  for  the  right  of  man's 
nature  to  transcend  all  the  accidents  of  his  history, 
began  in  the  name  of  religion  —  the  instinct  where- 
unto  is  the  deepest  in  us,  the  innermost  kernel  and 
germinal  dot  in  the  human  spirit ;  Luther's  hammer 


312  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

shook  the  world.  During  mid-winter,  in  Switzer- 
land, when  the  snow  overhangs  heavily  from  every 
cliff,  if  the  traveller  but  clap  his  hands  and  shout 
aloud,  the  mountains  answer  with  an  avalanche. 
When  Martin  lifted  up  his  voice  amid  the  medieval 
snows  of  Europe,  half  Christendom  came  down  in 
that  great  land-slip  of  churches.  Other  snows  have 
since  fallen;  other  voices  will  be  lifted  up;  other 
church-slides  will  follow  —  for  every  mountain  shall 
be  levelled,  and  the  valleys  filled.  The  Bible  took 
the  place  of  the  Mass-book,  the  minister  of  the 
priest,  the  independent  society  of  the  Papal  church. 
The  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God  is  to  be 
the  final  result  for  all. 

II.  Next  came  the  protest  against  Monarchy. 
The  Anglo-Saxons  never  loved  single-headed,  abso- 
lute despotism.  How  the  Barons  fought  against  it ! 
But  it  was  left  for  "  His  Majesty's  faithful  Com- 
mons "  to  do  the  work.  The  dreadful  axe  of  Puri- 
tanic Oliver  Cromwell  shore  off  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  making  a  clean  cut  between  the  vicarious 
government  of  the  middle  ages,  and  the  personal 
self-rule  of  modern  times.  On  the  30th  of  January, 
1648,  the  executioner  held  up  the  head  of  Charles  I. 
with  a  "  Behold  the  Head  of  a  Traitor,"  and 
"  Royalty  disappeared  in  front  of  Whitehall : "  a 
ghastly,  dreadful  sight.  Peasant  Luther  pushed  the 
Latin  Mass-book  aside  with  his  German  Bible,  say- 


THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION.  313 

ing,  "  Thus  I  break  the  succession  of  the  Priests." 
With  his  sword  Cromwell,  the  brewer,  pushed  aside 
the  Crown  of  England,  "  Thus  I  break  the  succes- 
sion of  Kings." 

New  England  loved  Cromwell ;  and  while  dwell- 
ing in  the  wilderness  exercised  the  rights  of  sov- 
ereignty many  times  before  it  was  known  what  she 
did,  both  destroying  and  building,  —  as  likewise  do 
all  of  us,  —  greater  and  wiser  than  she  knew. 
Luther's  hammer  broke  also  the  neck  of  kings,  who 
disappear,  and  in  their  place  came  up  governors  and 
presidents  not  born  to  adverse  rule,  but  voted  in  for 
official  service. 

III.  Then  came  the  protest  against  Aristocracy. 
God  made  men  not  in  classes  but  as  individuals  — 
each  man  a  person  with  all  the  substantive  rights  of 
humanity :  the  same  law  must  serve  for  all ;  all 
must  be  equal  before  it  and  the  social  institutions  of 
the  community.  That  was  the  dim  utterance  of 
many  a  man  who  grumbled  in  his  beard :  — 

"  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span 
Where  was  then  the  gentleman  ?  " 

How  idly  they  dreamed  —  looking  back  for  the  Para- 
dise that  lay  before  them!  But  between  it  and 
them  Pison,  Gihon,  Hiddekel,  and  a  fourth  stream, 
nameless  as  yet,  rolled  torrents  of  blood ;  and  a  fiery 
sword  of  selfishness  turned  every  way  to  keep  men 
VOL.  I.  27 


314  THE    NEBKASKA   QUESTION. 

from  the  Tree  of  Life,  whose  very  leaves  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations  —  could  they  but  get  to  it. 
Could  they  —  aye !  Can  they  not  ? 

Little  by  little,  man's  nature  prevailed  over  Aris- 
tocracy, one  accident  of  his  development.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  Briton  had  restricted  the  Nobility  he  brought 
with  him  from  the  Continent ;  —  only  the  eldest  son 
inherits  his  father's  land,  title,  and  rank,  the  later- 
born  all  commoners.  The  Anglo-Saxon  American 
broke  up  Primogeniture :  the  children  are  equal  in 
blood  and  rank ;  the  fu'st  son  has  no  more  of  his 
father  in  him  than  the  last ;  all  must  share  equally  in 
his  goods.  Rank  is  not  heritable.  If  a  coward,  the 
Captain's  son  is  no  Captain ;  by  human  substance, 
eminent  manhood,  bravery,  skill,  is  the  new  man 
made  Captain ;  not  by  the  historic  accident  of  legiti- 
mate descent  from  an  old  Captain.  To  be  born  well 
is  to  be  well  born  ;  tall  men  are  of  a  high  family. 
The  corporal's  child,  yea,  the  sons  of  Rank  and  File, 
are  also  men.  In  the  woods  of  Nature,  new  human- 
ity takes  precedence  of  all  the  artificial  distinctions 
of  old  time.  The  crime  of  the  father  must  work  no 
attainder  in  the  baby's  blood  ;  by  the  sour  grapes  of 
his  own  eating  only  shall  a  man's  teeth  be  set  on 
edge.  Estates  must  not  be  entailed  in  perpetuity. 
Land  must  be  held  in  fee-simple,  with  no  quitrents, 
or  other  servitudes  of  vassalage  ;  on  terms  which  all 
can  understand.  The  vicarious  land-tenures  of  the 
INIiddle  Ages  are  for  ever  broken.    All  men  may  hold 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  315 

land  ;  and  cheaply  convey  it  to  whom  they  will.  For 
the  first  time  the  majority  have  a  stake  in  the  public 
hedge ;  the  mediaeval  "  Noble,"  the  conventional 
"  Gentleman "  gradually  withdraws  and  moves  out 
from  New  England.  "  It  is  not  a  good  place  for 
Gentlemen,"  so  a  governor  wrote  two  hundred  years 
ago.  Everybody  is  "  Mr."  ;  then  "  Esquire."  The 
born  magistrate  vanishes,  the  "  Select  Men  "  are  an- 
nually voted  in.  Still  the  social  aristocracy,  bot- 
tomed on  accident,  is  far  from  being  ended.  But  it 
rests  no  longer  on  the  immovable  accident  of  birth, 
but  on  the  changeable  block  of  money,  and  like  that 
can  be  struggled  for  and  acquired  by  all.  It  rests  on 
golden  sands  or  fickle  votes. 

IV.  There  yet  remains  the  protest  against  Despot- 
ocracy — the  adverse  rule  of  the  master  over  the  ser- 
vant, the  hostile  subordination  of  the  weak  to  the 
strong  in  the  family.  In  a  military  despotism,  war 
confers  dignity  :  "  it  is  the  part  of  a  man  to  fight," 
says  Homer,  "of  a  slave  to  work;"  and  they  "who 
exercise  lordship  are  called  Benefactors."  In  a  The- 
ocracy, the  priest  is  a  sacred  person  :  his  work  is  "  di- 
vine service,"  he  enters  the  temple ;  but  the  people 
are  profane,  and  must  stand  without ;  their  work  is 
menial !  In  a  Theocracy,  Monarchy,  Aristocracy  — 
founded  and  maintained  by  violence  or  cunning  — 
labor  is  thought  degrading ;  the  laborer  is  for  the 
State,  not   it    also  for    him.      This   exploitering    of 


816  THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

the  weak  by  the  strong  belongs  to  the  essence 
of  those  three  institutions.  Domestic  Slavery  co- 
heres therewith,  and  in  dark  ages  this  adverse 
rule  of  the  strong  over  the  weak  appears  in  all  the 
collective  action  of  men  —  ecclesiastical,  political, 
social,  domestic ;  the  God,  the  King,  the  Noble,  the 
Master,  the  Husband,  the  Father,  —  all  are  tyrants  ; 
all  rule  is  despotism  —  the  strong  for  his  interest 
coercing  the  weak  against  theirs.  In  such  a  soil, 
Slavery  is  at  home,  and  grows  rank  and  strong. 

But  in  an  iftdustrial  community,  with  a  printed 
Bible  bought  by  the  Parish  and  belonging  thereunto ; 
with  a  minister  chosen  by  the  laymen's  votes,  ordain- 
ed by  their  hands,  paid  by  their  free-will  offerings, 
nay,  educated,  perhaps,  by  their  charity,  criticized  by 
their  judgment,  removable  at  their  will ;  with  a  creed 
voted  in  by  the  congregation  —  and  voted  out  when 
they  change  their  mind ;  with  no  monarch  ruling  by 
divine  right,  but  only  a  Governor  chosen  by  the 
people  at  their  annual  meeting ;  with  no  "  Nobles," 
no  "  Gentlemen,"  but  an  elected  assembly,  a  general 
court,  —  sworn  on  a  constitution  made  by  the  people, 
—  democratically  making  laws  ;  with  magistrates  cho- 
sen by  the  people,  or  responsible  thereto  ;  with  dem- 
ocratic trial  by  jury  for  all  men  ;  with  the  idea  that  a 
man's  nature  is  before  all  the  accidents  of  his  ances- 
try or  estate  —  the  old  domestic  Despotocracy  must 
gradually  become  impossible.  Labor  will  be  thought 
honorable  —  idleness  a  disgrace.    Productive  activity 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  317 

will  be  deemed  a  glory,  and  riches  its  result,  the 
greatest  of  all  mere  outside  and  personal  distinctions. 
The  tools  must  be  for  whoso  can  handle  them.  So 
the  threefold  movement,  destroying  the  triple  tyr- 
anny already  mentioned,  must  presently  achieve  the 
emancipation  of  man  from  all  personal  servitude  and 
domestic  subordination :  the  substance  of  man  must 
be  inaugurated  above  the  accidents  of  his  history. 
This  must  be  done  not  only  in  the  Church,  the  State, 
the  Community,  but  also  in  the  Family.  It  must  set 
the  bondman  free.  If  the  Church,  State,  and  Com- 
munity rest  on  natural  Law,  so  likewise  must  the 
Family  as  well. 

To  accomplish  this,  two  things  were  needful.  This 
was  the  first. 

1.  To  affirm  as  a  principle  and  establish  in 
measures  the  idea  that  all  men,  rich  and  poor,  strong 
and  weak,  are  equal  in  all  their  natural  rights ;  that 
as  the  accident  of  birth  makes  no  man  Priest,  King, 
or  Noble,  with  a  right,  thence  derived,  to  rule  over 
men  against  their  will  in  the  Church,  State,  or  Com- 
munity ;  so  the  accident  of  superior  power  gives  no 
man  a  right  in  the  Family  to  hold  others  in  bondage 
and  subordination,  for  his  advantage  and  against 
theirs.  It  is  only  to  admit  that  all  are  Men,  for  man- 
hood carries  all  human  rights  with  it,  as  land  the 
crops,  and  the  substance  its  primary  qualities.  It 
seems  a  small  thing  to  do ;  —  especially  for  men 
27* 


318  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

able,  to  dispense  and  make  way  with  the  other 
mediaeval  forms  of  vicarious  rule  —  theocracy,  mon- 
archy, and  aristocracy.  How  easy  it  seemed  to  in- 
augurate personality  and  individualism  in  the  family ! 
But  as  matters  were,  this  was  the  most  difficult 
thing  of  all.  For  the  Priests,  the  Kings,  the  Nobles 
did  not  come  over  —  only  the  tradition  thereof,  and 
the  habit  of  subordination  thereto,  with  a  few  feeble 
scions  of  the  sacerdotal,  royal,  and  noble  stocks  — 
and  preaching  against  these  always  was  popular,  — 
while  the  Masters  came  over  in  large  numbers, 
bringing  their  slaves.  They  brought  the  substance  of 
Despotocracy  along  with  them,  not  merely  its  tradi- 
tion. To  preach  against  that  was  always  a  "  sin  " 
to  the  American  Church.  But  Man  wants  unity  of 
consciousness.  Accordingly,  in  New  England  good 
men  began  early  to  feel  that  absolute  and  perpetual 
Slavery  was  a  wicked  thing.  Had  not  the  letter  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  of  certain  passages  in  the 
New  blinded  their  eyes,  I  think  the  Puritan  would 
have  seen  more  clearly  than  he  did  see.  Still,  with 
so  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  in  him, 
he  could  not  but  see  it  was  ^\Tong  to  steal  men  for 
the  purpose  of  making  them  Slaves  and  their  chil- 
dren after  them.  So  Slavery  was  always  a  contra- 
diction in  the  consciousness  of  New  England.  The 
white  Slaves  became  free  on  expiration  of  their  term 
of  service,  or  were  set  free  before.  There  were  many 
such.     The  red  men  would  not  work  —  and  were  let 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  319 

alone,  or  quietly  shot  down.  The  Indians  killed  the 
white  man  and  scalped  him  ;  the  Puritan  omitted 
the  scalping  —  it  was  not  worth  his  while  ;  the  scalp 
was  of  no  use. 

The  Slavery  of  the  Blacks  never  prevailed  exten- 
sively in  New  England.  It  was  not  found  very  prof- 
itable. True  it  prevailed :  it  had  the  laws  and  the 
tradition  of  the  elders  on  its  side.  But  it  was  yet 
felt,  known,  and  confessed  to  be  at  variance  with  the 
ecclesiastical,  political,  and  social  ideas  of  the  people. 
There  was  always  a  good  deal  of  conscience  in  New 
England.  The  religious  origin  of  the  first  colonies  is 
not  yet  a  forgotten  fact.  The  Puritan  still  looked  up 
to  a  Higher  Law.  Did  he  keep  his  powder  dry  ?  He 
also  trusted  in  God.  Coveting  the  end,  he  looked  for 
the  means  thereto.  The  gain  from  the  compulsory 
labor  of  the  African  Slave  was  not  motive  enough 
to  keep  up  the  contradiction  in  the  New  England 
consciousness.  So  before  the  Revolution  this  institu- 
tion was  much  weakened,  and  with  that  disappeared 
from  New  England ;  and  soon  after  vanished  out  of 
all  the  States  which  she  bore  or  taught. 

2.  The  other  thing  was  to  affirm  as  a  principle  and 
establish  as  a  measure  the  natural  equality  of  Men 
and  Women  in  all  that  pertained  to  human  rights. 
It  was  only  to  affirm  that  Woman  is  human,  and 
has  the  same  quality  of  human  substance  with  man. 
If  difference  in  condition,  as  rich  and  poor,  or  ability. 


320  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

as  strong  or  weak,  does  not  affect  the  substance  of 
manhood,  and  the  rights  thence  accruing,  no  more 
does  difference  of  sex,  masculine  or  feminine,  make 
one  master  and  the  other  slave.  Not  only  the  prole- 
tary, the  servant,  the  slave,  but  exploitered  woman 
also  must  rise  as  Despotocracy  goes  down. 

In  the  Southern  part  of  the  North  American  Con- 
tinent other  Anglo-Saxon  colonies  goL  planted  and 
grew  up.  None  of  them  was  a  religious  settlement ; 
the  immigrants  came  not  for  the  sake -of  an  idea  too 
new  or  too  great  for  toleration  at  home.  They  came 
as  Adventurers,  seeking  their  fortune ;  not  as  Pilgrims, 
to  found  the  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  Earth."  The 
Southern  Settlers  had  not  the  New  England  hostility 
to  mediaeval  institutions.  Theocracy,  Monarchy, 
Aristocracy,  were  not  so  unwelcome  further  South. 
In  1671,  the  Governor  of  Virginia  said  that  she  "  had 
no  free  schools  nor  printing-press.  Learning  has 
brought  disobedience,  and  heresy,  and  sects  into  the 
world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them,  and  libels 
against  the  best  governments.  God  keep  us  from' 
both !  "  Despotocracy  had  its  home  in  the  Southern 
States.  African  Slavery  came  to  Virginia  in  the 
same  year  which  brought  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth. 
It  suited  the  idleness  of  the  self-indulgent  master, 
and  became  an  institution  fLxed  and  beloved  in  the 
Southern  colonies,  so  diverse  in  their  ideas  from  the 
stern  but  bigoted  North.     Still  the  ideas  of  the  age 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  821 

found  their  way  to  these  colonies  —  and  led  to  acts. 
There  also  was  a  protest  against  theocracy,  monar- 
chy, aristocracy,  and  even  against  despotocracy. 
Mutuality  of  origin,  community  of  position  —  that  is 
all  the  Northern  and  Southern  colonies  at  first  had  in 
common.  Sentiments,  ideas,  institutions,  were  quite 
diverse.  By  and  by  a  little  trade  helped  unite  the 
two.  The  South  wanted  Slaves.  The  North  — 
especially  Rhode  Island  —  overcame  its  scruples,  and, 
spite  of  the  Old  Testament,  stole  men  in  Africa  to  sell 
them  at  enormous  profit  in  the  colonies  of  the  South. 

This  great  human  protest  against  that  four-fold 
despotism  continually  went  on  —  no  man  under- 
standing the  great  battle  between  the  substance  of 
man's  progressive  nature  and  the  stationary  institu- 
tions which  were  the  accidents  of  his  history.  At 
length,  things  came  to  such  a  pass  that  connection 
between  new  America  and  old  England  could  not 
be  borne.  Between  the  Old  and  the  New  there  had 
ceased  to  be  that  mutuality  of  Sentiment  and  Idea 
which  makes  unity  of  institutions  and  unity  of  ac- 
tion possible.  The  Daughter  was  too  strong  to  bear 
patiently  the  dictation  and  the  yoke  of  her  parent ; 
the  Mother  was  too  distant  and  too  feeble  to  enforce 
her  selfish  commands. 

America  published  to  the  world  a  part  of  the  new 
ideas  which  lay  in  her  mind.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence  contained  the  American  Programme 


322  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

of  Political  Principles.  The  motive  thereto  is  to  be 
found  in  the  general  human  instinct  for  progress,  but 
more  especially  in  the  old  Teutonic  spirit,  the  love 
of  individual  liberty,  which  has  marked  the  ancient 
Germans,  and  still  more  eminently  their  Anglo- 
Saxon  descendants,  as  well  in  Christian  as  in 
Heathen  times.  The  form  of  speech  —  self-evident 
maxims,  universal  truths  resting  on  the  consciousness 
of  mankind  —  seems  derived  from  European  writers 
on  Natural  Law;  the  influence  of  continental  free- 
thinkers .is  obvious  therein.  But  the  first  express 
declaration,  that  there  are  natural,  unalienable  Rights 
in  man,  seems  to  have  been  made  a  few  years  before, 
in  New  England,  in  Boston.  Is  it  here  thought  an 
honor  to  the  town  ?  —  Nay,  perhaps  a  disgrace  I 

Here  is  the  American  Programme  of  Political 
Principles  :  All  men  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  natural  Rights  ;  these  Rights  can  be 
alienated  only  by  the  possessor  thereof;  in  respect 
thereto  all  men  are  equal;  amongst  them  are  the 
Right  to  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  Pursuit  of  Happi- 
ness ;  it  is  the  function  of  government  to  preserve 
all  these  natural,  unalienable,  and  equal  Rights  for 
each  man ;  government  is  amenable  to  the  people, 
deriving  its  sanction  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed. 

In  time  of  peace  the  thirteen  distinct  colonies 
could  not  have  united  in  that  Declaration  of  Princi- 
ples.    The  political  ideal  was  a  severe  criticism  on 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  323 

the  actual  legislation  of  the  Americans.  Talk  of 
natural  law  and  equal  rights  when  every  colony  held 
Slaves  in  perpetual  bondage !  When  the  North 
stole  men  in  Africa  to  sell  them  in  Carolina !  But 
America  was  then  in  her  agony  and  bloody  sweat. 
European  Despotism  was  the  Angel  which  strength- 
ened her.  External  violence  pressed  the  colonies  to- 
gether into  a  Confederation  of  States ;  that  alone 
gave  unity  of  action  when  there  was  no  unity  of 
humane  sentiment  or  political  idea.  The  union  was 
only  military — for  defence. 

The  New  conquered;  but  the  Old  did  not  die. 
Not  every  Tory  went  over  to  the  British  side.  After 
the  war  was  over,  the  nation  must  organize  itself  on 
that  new  Platform  of  Principles.  Bnt,  alas,  much 
of  the  old  selfishness  remained  —  theocratic,  mo- 
narchic, aristocratic,  and  still  more  despotocratic ;  it 
would  appear  in  the  new  government.  There  was 
no  real  unity  of  Idea  between  the  extreme  South 
and  the  North,  between  Carolina  and  Connecticut. 
Nothing  is  done  by  leaps.  In  organizing  the  Inde- 
pendence won  in  battle,  the  People  proclaimed  their 
Programme  of  Political  Purpose.  It  is  the  Preamble 
to  the  Constitution:  "  To  form  a  more  perfect  Union, 
establish  Justice,  insure  domestic  Tranquillity,  pro- 
vide for  the  common  Defence,  promote  the  general 
Welfare,  and  secure  the  Blessings  of  Liberty." 
The  Purpose  was  as  noble  as  the  Principles.  But 
the  means  to  that  end,  the  Constitution  itself,  is  by 


324  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

no  means  unitary ;  it  is  a  provisional  compromise 
between  the  ideal  political  Principles  of  the  Declara- 
tion, and  the  actual  selfishness  of  the  people  North 
and  South ;  it  is  a  measure  which  did  not  so  much 
suit  the  ideal  Right,  as  it  favored  one  great  ac- 
tual tyranny.  National  theocracy  was  given  up. 
How  could  the  Americans  allow  a  "  national  re- 
ligion ? "  Monarchy  went  also  to  the  ground ;  the 
Puritan  bosom  that  bore  Cromwell  — 

"  Would  have  brooked 
Th'  eternal  Devil  to  keep  his  state  .... 
As  easily  as  King." 

Aristocracy  found  more  favor,  but  likewise  perished  ; 
"  no  title  of  nobility  shall  be  granted ; "  honors  are 
not  devisable.  Despotocracy,  the  worst  institution 
of  the  middle  ages  —  the  leprosy  of  society  —  came 
over  the  water:  the  Slave  survived  the  Priest,  the 
Noble,  the  King.  Must  the  axe  of  a  more  terrible 
Cromwell  shear  that  also  away  ?  Shall  it  be  a  black 
Cromwell?  History  points  to  St.  Domingo.  The 
Future  also  has  much  to  teach  us.  The  Declaration 
of  Principles  and  of  Purposes  would  annihilate  Sla- 
very ;  the  Constitution  nowhere  forbids  it,  but  broods 
over  that  egg  which  savage  selfishness  once  laid. 
How  could  the  liberty -loving  North  join  with  Caro- 
lina, which  rejoiced  to  fetter  men?  The  unity  of 
action  was  no  longer  military  —  it  was  commercial, 
union  for  trade.  Thus  the  Idea  of  America  became 
an  Act! 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  325 

The  truths  of  the  Declaration  went  abroad  to  do 
their  work.  The  French  Revolution  followed  with 
its  wide-reaching  consequences,  so  beneficial  to  man- 
kind ;  it  still  goes  on.  The  ground-swell  has  come 
near  the  surface,  and  all  the  European  sea  now 
foams  with  tumult.  Foreign  opposition  withdrew  ; 
America  was  left  to  herself,  the  sole  republic  of  the 
world,  with  the  wilderness  for  her  stage  and  scene, 
and  her  great  ideas  for  plot.  The  two  antagonistic 
elements,  the  old  selfishness  which  loves  those  four 
traditions  of  the  past,  the  new  benevolent  instinct  of 
progress  which  seeks  the  development  of  all  man's 
nobler  powers,  were  to  fight  their  battle,  while  with 
hope  and  fear  the  world  looks  on.  The  New  World 
has  now  broken  with  the  old  —  once  and  for  ever. 

The  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
appear  now  more  prominent  in  the  American  than 
in  the  Britons ;  yet  he  is  not  altered,  only  developed. 
The  love  of  individual  liberty  triumphs  continually  ; 
the  white  man  becomes  more  democratic  —  in 
Church,  State,  Community,  and  Family.  The  in- 
vasive character  appears  in  the  individual  and 
national  thirst  for  land,  and  our  rapid  geographic 
spread.  Materialism  shows  itself  in  the  swift  growth 
of  covetousness,  in  the  concentration  of  the  talent 
and  genius  of  the  nation  upon  the  acquisition  of 
riches.  The  power  to  organize  things  and  men 
comes  out  in  the  machines,  ships,  and  mills,  in  little 
and   great   confederations,   from   a    lycenm   to    the 

VOL.  I.  28 


326  THE   NEBKASKA   QUESTION. 

Federal  Union  of  thirty-one  States.  The  natural 
exclusiveness  appears  in  the  extermination  of  the  red 
man,  in  the  enslavement  of  the  black  man,  in  the 
contempt  with  which  he  is  treated  —  turned  out  of 
the  tavern,  the  church,,  and  the  graveyard.  The  lack 
of  high  qualities  of  mind  is  shown  in  the  poverty  of 
American  literature,  the  meanness  of  American 
religion,  in  the  neglect  and  continual  violation  of  the 
idea  set  forth  in  our  national  programme  of  Prin- 
ciples and  Purpose.  Since  the  Revolution,  the  im- 
mediate aim  of  America  appears  to  have  changed. 

At  first,  during  the  period  of  America's  coloniza- 
tion and  her  controversy  with  England,  and  her 
affirmation  and  establishment  of  her  programme  of 
political  principles,  —  the  great  national  work  of  the 
disunited  provinces  was  a  struggle  for  local  self- 
government  against  despotic  centralization  beyond 
the  sea.  It  was  an  effort  against  the  vicarious  rule 
of  the  middle  ages,  which  allowed  the  people  no 
power  in  the  State,  the  laity  none  in  the  Church,  the 
servant  none  in  the  family.  It  was  a  great  effort  — 
mainly  unconscious  —  in  favor  of  the  direct  govern- 
ment of  each  State  by  itself,  of  the  whole  people  by 
the  whole  people ;  a  national  protest  against  Theoc- 
racy, —  the  subordination  of  man  in  religious  affairs 
to  the  accident  of  his  history ;  Monarchy,  the  subor- 
dination of  the  mass  of  men  to  a  single  man ;  Aris- 
tocracy, the  subordination  of  the  many  to  the  few, 
of  the  weak  to  the  strong ;  yes,  in  part  also  against 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  327 

Despotocracy,  the  subordination  of  the  slave  who 
toils  to  the  master  that  enjoys,  —  in  their  rights  they 
were  equal.  This  forced  men  to  look  inward  at  the 
natural  rights  of  man ;  outward  at  the  general 
development  thereof  in  history.  It  led  to  the  at- 
tempt to  establish  a  Democracy,  which,  so  far  as 
Measures  are  concerned,  is  the  government  of  all, 
for  all,  by  all ;  so  far  as  moral  Principle  is  concerned, 
it  is  the  enactment  of  God's"  Justice  into  human 
laws.  There  was  a  struggle  of  the  many  against 
the  few;  of  man's  nature,  with  its  instinct  of  pro- 
gressive and  perpetual  development,  against  the  ac- 
cidents of  man's  history.  It  was  an  effort  to  estab- 
lish the  Eternal  Law  of  God  against  the  provisional 
caprice  of  tyrants.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  these 
gi'eat  purposes  and  ideas  existed  consciously  in  the 
minds  of  men.  They  were  in  men's  character,  not 
in  their  convictions ;  they  came  out  in  their  life  more 
than  in  their  speech.  They  were  in  men  as  botany 
is  in  this  plant,  as  chemistry  in  this  drop  of  water,  as 
gravitation  which  rounds  it  to  a  globe  and  brings  it 
to  the  ground.  But  the  camelia  know^s  not  the 
botany  it  lives ;  the  drop  of  water  knows  nothing  of 
the  chemistry  which  has  formed  it,  arranging  its  par- 
ticles "  by  number  and  measure  and  weight ; "  it 
knows  not  the  gi-avitation  which  brings  it  to  the 
ground.  So  it  was  the  great  soul  of  humanity  that 
stirred  in  our  fathers'  heart ;  it  was  the  Providence 
of  God  working  by  the  men  who  formed  the  State. 


328  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

From  1620  to  1788  there  was  a  rapid  development 
of  ideas.  But  since  that  time  the  outward  pressure 
has  been  withdrawn.  The  nation  is  no  longer  called 
to  protest  against  a  foreign  foe  ;  no  despot  forces  us 
to  fall  back  on  the  great  principles  of  human  nature, 
and  declare  great  universal  truths.  Even  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  are  always  metaphysical  in  revolution. 
We  have  ceased  to  be  such,  and  have  become 
material.  We  have  let  the  programme  of  political 
principles  and  purposes  slip  out  of  the  nation's  con- 
sciousness, and  have  betaken  ourselves,  body  and 
soul  to  the  creation  of  riches.  Wealth  is  the  great 
object  of  American  desire.  Covetousness  is  the 
American  passion.  This  is  so  —  nationally  in  the 
political  affairs  of  the  country ;  ecclesiastically,  so- 
cially, domestically,  individually.  Our  national  char- 
acter, political  institutions,  geographic  situation, — 
all  favor  the  accumulation  of  riches.  I  thank  God 
that  we  are  thus  rich  I 

No  country  was  ever  so  rich  before,  nor  got  rich 
so  fast ;  in  none  had  wealth  ever  such  power,  or  was 
so  esteemed.  It  is  counted  as  the  end  of  life,  not  as 
the  material  basis  to  higher  forms  thereof.  It  has 
no  conventional  check  in  the  institutions  of  the  land, 
and  only  two  natural  checks  in  the  heart  of  the  peo- 
ple. One  is  the  talent  and  genius  —  intellectual, 
moral,  affectional,  and  religious  —  that  is  born  in  rare 
men  ;  and  the  other  is  the  desire,  the  caprice,  the 
opinion,  of  the  great  majority  of  men,  who  oppose 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  329 

their  collective  human  will  against  the  material  glit- 
ter of  mere  accumulated  money.  But  money  can 
buy  intellectual  talent  and  intellectual  genius ;  at 
least  it  can  buy  American  talent  and  American 
genius.  Money,  and  the  men  of  cultivated  minds 
whom  it  buys,  can  deceive  the  people,  so  that  the 
majority  shall  follow  the  dollar  wherever  it  rolls. 
The  clink  of  the  dollar,  —  that  is  the  reveille,  the 
morning  drum-beat,  for  the  American  people.  In 
America,  money  is  inaugurated  as  a  power  to  con- 
trol all  other  powers.  It  has  itself  become  an  "  In- 
stitution "  —  master  of  all  the  rest. 

Three  of  those  bad  institutions  that  I  named, 
whereof  our  fathers  brought  the  traditions  from  the 
old  world,  have  mainly  perished.  The  mediaeval 
Theocracy  has  gone  out  from  the  Protestant  Church  ; 
Monarchy  has  wholly  faded  from  the  consciousness 
of  the  people;  Aristocracy,  sitting  unmovable  on 
her  cradle,  has  had  her  heart  pierced  through  and 
through  by  the  gigantic  spear  of  American  Industry 
horsed  on  a  steam-engine.  Money  has  taken  the 
place  of  all  three.  It  has  got  inaugurated  into  the 
Church,  —  it  is  a  Church  of  commerce;  in  the  State 
—  it  is  a  State  of  commerce  ;  in  the  Community  not 
less,  —  it  is  a  society  of  commerce ;  and  money 
wields  the  triple  power  of  those  three  old  masters, 
Theocracy,  Monarchy,  Aristocracy.  It  is  the  Al- 
mighty Dollar. 

In  the  American  Church,  money  is  God.  The 
28* 


330  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

peculiar  sins  of  money,  and  of  the  rich,  they  are 
never  preached  against ;  it  is  a  Church  of  commerce, 
wealth  its  heaven  and  the  millionaire  its  saint ;  its 
ministers  should  be  ordained,  not  "  by  the  imposition 
of  hands,"  but  of  bank-bills  —  of  small  denomina- 
tion. In  the  American  State,  money  is  the  Consti- 
tution :  officers  ought  to  be  sworn  on  the  federal  cur- 
rency; they  should  make  the  sign  of  the  dollar,  ($) 
as  their  official  symbolic  cross ;  it  is  a  State  of  com- 
merce. In  the  community,  money  is  Nobility ;  it  is 
transmissible  social  power;  it  is  Aristocracy,  it 
makes  a  man  who  has  got  it  a  vulgar  "  gentleman ; " 
it  is  a  Society  of  commerce.  Nay,  in  the  family, 
money  is  thought  better  than  love,  and  the  daughter 
who  fascinates  and  coaxes  and  courts  and  weds  a 
bag  of  gold,  gets  the  approbation  of  her  mother  and 
her  father's  benediction,  "  Many  daughters  have  done 
virtuously,  but  thou  excellest  them  all." 

"  None  but  the  rich  deserve  the  fair." 

The  fourth  bad  institution  whose  tradition  our 
fathers  brought,  Despotocracy,  the  rule  of  the  master 
over  the  slave  whom  he  exploiters,  —  that  has  not 
yet  shared  the  fate  of  Theocracy,  Monarchy,  and 
Aristocracy.  It  is  still  preserved ;  it  leagues  itself  with 
money,  and  builds  up  anew  in  America  the  old  cor- 
rupt family  of  the  middle  ages.  In  New  York,  it 
clothes  the  white  flunkeys  of  the  Hon.  Dives  Gotrich 
with  an  imitated  livery ;    in   New   Orleans,  and  in 


THE   NEBRASKA    QUESTION.  331 

more  than  half  the  land,  it  takes  those  whom  Nature 
has  clothed  in  a  sable  livery,  and  makes  them  its 
slaves.  Despotocracy  alone  could  not  accomplish 
this.  The  wickedness  is  foreign  to  the  American 
Idea  of  a  State,  a  community,  or  a  church.  But 
leaguing  with  money,  which  has  taken  the  place  of 
all  those  old  institutions,  it  is  this  day  the  strongest 
power  in  the  nation. 

Money  having  taken  the  place  of  these  three  insti- 
tutions, it  must  be  politically  represented  in  the 
nation  by  a  party ;  for  a  party  is  the  provisional  or- 
ganization of  a  tendency.  So  there  is  a  party  organ- 
ized about  the  Dollar  as  its  central  nucleus  and  idea. 
The  dollar  is  the  germinal  dot  of  the  Whig  party ; 
its  motive  is  pecuniary  ;  its  motto  should  be,  to  state 
it  in  LtB-i'm,  pecimia  pecuniata,  money  moneyed,  money 
made.  It  sneers  at  the  poor ;  at  the  many ;  has  a 
contempt  for  the  people.  It  legislates  against  the 
poor,  and  for  the  rich  ;  that  is,  for  men  pecuniarily 
strong;  the  few  who  are  born  with  the  desire,  the 
talent,  and  the  conventional  position  to  become  rich. 
"  Take  care  of  the  rich,  and  they  will  take  care  of  the 
poor,"  is  its  secret  maxim.  Every  thing  must  yield 
to  money :  that  is  to  have  universal  right  of  way. 
Down  with  Mankind !  the  Dollar  is  coming !  The 
great  domestic  object  of  Government,  said  the  great- 
est Expounder  of  this  party,  "  is  the  protection  of 
property ; "  —  that  is  to  say,  the  protection  of  money 


332  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

moneyed,  money  got.  With  this  party  there  is  no 
Absolute  Right,  no  Absolute  Wrong.  Instead  there- 
of, there  is  Expediency  and  Inexpediency.  There  is 
no  law  higher  than  the  power  to  wield  money  just  as 
you  will.  Accordingly  a  millionaire  is  reckoned  by 
this  party  as  the  highest  production  of  society.  He 
is  the  Whig  ideal ;  he  alone  has  attained  "  the  meas- 
ure of  the  stature  of  a  perfect  man." 

Singular  to  say,  most  of  the  great  public  charities 
of  America  have  been  founded  by  men  of  this  party ; 
most  of  the  institutions  of  learning,  the  hospitals  and 
asylums  of  all  kinds.  Drive  out  Nature  with  a  dollar, 
still  she  comes  back. 

But  man  is  man,  can  a  dollar  stop  him?  For 
ever  ?  The  instinct  of  development  is  as  inextin- 
guishable in  man  as  the  instinct  of  perpetuation  in 
blackbkds  and  thrushes,  who  build  their  procreant 
nests  under  all  administrations,  theocratic  or  demo- 
cratic. So  there  is  another  party  which  represents 
the  Majority  of  the  people  ;  that  majority  who  have 
not  money  which  is  coveted,  only  the  covetous 
desire  thereof.  This  represents  the  acquisitive  in- 
stinct of  the  people ;  not  acquired  wealth  ;  not  money 
moneyed,  but  money  moneying, — pecunia  pecunians, 
to  state  it  Latin-wise.  This  is  the  Democratic  party. 
It  loves  money  as  well  as  the  Whig  party,  but  has 
got  less  of  it.  However,  with  all  its  love  of  money, 
it  has  something  of  the  momentum  of  the  nation, 
something  also  of  the  instinct  of  mankind. 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  333 

To  the  Whig  party  belong  the  rich,  the  educated, 
the  decorous;  the  established,  —  those  who  lookback, 
and  count  the  money  got.  To  the  other  party  be- 
long the  young,  the  poor,  the  bold,  the  adventurous, 
everybody  that  is  in  want,  everybody  that  is  in  debt, 
everybody  who  complains.  The  audacious  are  its 
rulers;  —  often  men  destitute  of  lofty  character,  of 
great  ideas,  of  Justice,  of  Love,  of  Religion — bold, 
smart,  saucy  men.  This  party  sneers  at  the  rich,  and 
hates  them  ;  of  course  it  envies  them,  and  lusts  for 
then-  gold.  It  talks  loudly  against  oppression  in  all 
corners  of  the  world,  except  our  own.  The  other  party 
talks  favorably  of  oppression,  and  shows  its  good  side. 

The  Democratic  party  appeals  to  the  brute  will  of 
the  majority,  right  or  wrong;  it  knows  no  Higher 
Law.  Its  statesmanship  is  the  power  to  enact  into 
permanent  institutions  the  transient  will  of  the  ma- 
jority :  that  is  the  ultimate  standard.  Popular  and 
unpopular,  take  the  place  of  right  and  wrong  —  vox 
popuU,  vox  Dei;  the  vote  settles  what  is  true,  what 
right.  It  regards  money  made  and  hoarded  as 
the  foe  of  human  progress,  and  so  is  hostile  to  the 
millionaire.  The  Whig  calls  on  his  lord,  "  Money, 
help  us  I"  To  get  money,  the  Democrat  can  do  all 
things  through  the  majority   strengthening  him. 

The  Catholic  does  homage  to  the  wafer  which  a 
baker  made,  and  a  celibate  priest  addressed  in  Latin  ; 
it  is  to  him  the  body  of  the  Catholic  God.  The 
Protestant  worships  the  Bible,  a  book  written  with 


334  THE    NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

ink,  in  Hebrew  and  Greek,  "translated  out  of  the 
original  tongues,  appointed  to  be  read  in  churches." 
To  him  it  is  the  word  of  God,  the  Protestant  God. 
In  the  same  way  the  Whig  party  worships  money : 
it  is  the  body  of  the  Whig  God ;  there  is  no  Higher 
Law  above  it.  The  Democratic  party  worships  the 
opinion  of  the  majority :  it  is  the  voice  of  the  Demo- 
crat's God :  there  is  no  Higher  Law.  To  the  Whig 
party,  —  no  matter  how  the  money  is  got,  by  smug- 
gling opium  or  selling  slaves,  —  it  is  pecimia  pecuni- 
ata,  —  money  moneyed.  To  the  Democratic  party  it 
IS  of  no  consequence  what  the  majority  wishes,  or 
whom  it  chooses :  Polk  is  as  strong  as  Jackson,  — 
when  voted  in ;  and  Pierce  as  great  as  Jefferson,  — 
for  office  makes  all  men  equally  tall.  Once  the 
Democracy  manfully  protested  against  England's 
oppressing  American  sailors  —  but  refused  to  protect 
a  colored  seaman ;  —  and  now  it  basely  protests 
against  America  making  any  black  man  free.  Once 
it  went  to  war  —  righteously,  perhaps,  for  aught  I 
know  —  in  order  to  take  a  Marblehead  fisherman  out 
of  a  British  ship,  where  he  had  been  wickedly  im- 
pressed. Now  the  same  Democracy  covets  Cuba 
and  IVIexico,  and  seeks  to  make  slaves  out  of  mill- 
ions of  men,  and  spread  slavery  everywhere.  If  the 
majority  wants  to  violate  the  Constitution  of  Amer- 
ica and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or  the 
Constitution  of  the  Universe  and  the  Declaration  of 
God,  why  !  the  cry  is  —  "  there  is  no  higher  law  ! " 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  335 

"  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number  I "  —  What 
shall  become  of  the  greatest  good  of  the  smaller 
number  ? 

There  is,  therefore,  no  vital  difference  between  the 
"Whig  party  and  the  Democratic  party ;  no  difference 
in  moral  principle.  The  Whig  inaugurates  the 
Money  got ;  the  Democrat  inaugurates  the  Desire  to 
get  the  money.  That  is  all  the  odds.  So  in  the 
times  that  try  the  passions,  which  are  the  souls  of 
these  parties,  the  Democrat  and  the  Whig  meet  on 
the  same  Baltimore  platform.  One  is  not  higher  and 
the  other  lower ;  they  are  just  alike.  There  is  only 
a  hand  rail  between  the  two,  which  breaks  down  if 
you  lean  on  it,  and  the  parties  mix.  In  common 
times,  it  becomes  plain  that  a  Democrat  is  but  a 
Whig  on  time ;  a  Whig  is  a  Democrat  arrived  at 
maturity;  his  time  has  come.  A  Democrat  is  a 
young  Whig  who  will  legislate  for  money  as  soon 
as  he  has  got  it ;  the  Whig  is  an  old  Democrat  who 
once  hurrahed  for  the  majority  —  "Down  with 
money !  that  is  a  despot  I  and  up  with  the  desire  for 
it !  Down  with  the  rich,  and  up  with  the  poor ! " 
The  young  man,  poor,  obscure,  and  covetous,  in 
1812  was  a  Democrat,  went  a-privateering  against 
England ;  rich,  and  accordingly  "  one  of  our  eminent 
citizens,"  in  1851  he  was  a  Whig,  and  went  a-kid- 
napping  against  Ellen  Craft  and  Thomas  Sims. 

Bedini  's  hand  is  "  thicker  than  itself  with  brother's 
blood."     Young  Democrats  very  properly  burnt  him 


336  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

in  effigy.  Old  Democrats,  wanting  to  be  President, 
took  him  to  their  hearts.  The  young  ones  will  also 
grow  up  in  time  to  honor  such  future  Nuncios  of 
the  Pope.  I  once  knew  a  crafty  family  which  had 
two  sons ;  both  men  of  ability,  and  of  remarkable 
unity  of  "  principle."  The  family  invested  one  in 
each  party,  and  as  it  had  a  head  on  either  side  of 
the  political  penny  thrown  into  the  air,  the  family 
was  sure  to  win.  A  New  England  Family,  wise  in 
its  generation ! 

Now,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  all  Democrats  or 
all  Whigs  are  of  this  way  of  thinking.  Quite  the 
contrary.  There  is  not  a  Whig  or  Democrat  who 
would  confess  it.  The  majority,  so  far  as  they  have 
convictions,  are  very  different  from  this  ;  but  the 
Whig  would  say  in  his  convention,  that  I  told  the 
truth  of  the  Democratic  party ;  the  Democrat,  in  his 
convention,  would  say,  I  told  the  truth  of  the  Whigs. 
These  ideas,  —  they  reside  in  the  two  parties,  as 
botany  in  this  camelia,  as  chemistry  in  the  water,  as 
in  the  drop  the  gravitation  which  brings  it  to  the 
ground :  not  a  conviction,  but  a  fact.  Each  of  these 
parties  has  great  good  to  accomplish.  Both  seem 
indispensable.  Money  must  be  looked  after.  It  is 
a  valuable  thing;  the  human  race  could  not  do 
without  property.  It  is  the  ladder  whereby  we  scale 
the  heavens  of  manhood.  But  property  alone  is 
good  for  nothing.  The  will  of  the  majority  must 
be  respected.     I  honor  the  ideas  of  the  Democratic 


THE    NEBRASKA    QUESTION.  337 

party,  and  of  the  Whig  party,  so  far  as  they  are 
just.  But  man  is  not  made  merely  for  money  ;  the 
majority  are  the  standard  of  power,  not  of  Right. 
There  is  a  law  of  God  which  directs  the  chink  of 
every  dollar ;  it  cannot  roll  except  by  the  laws  of  the 
Eternal  Father  of  Earth  and  Heaven.  What  if  the 
majority  enact  iniquity  into  a  statute  !  Can  millions 
make  Wrong  right?  Justice  is  the  greatest  good 
of  all. 

With  little  geographical  check  or  interference  from 
other  nations,  we  are  going  on  solving  our  problem 
of  "  manifest  destiny."  Since  the  establishment  of 
Independence,  America  has  made  a  rapid  develop- 
ment. Her  population  has  increased  with  unex- 
ampled rapidity;  her  territory  has  enlarged  to  receive 
her  ever  greatening  family ;  riches  have  been  multi- 
plied faster  even  than  their  possessors.  But  some  of 
the  least  lovely  qualities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tribe 
have  become  dreadfully  apparent.  We  have  exter- 
minated the  Indians ;  we  keep  no  treaties  made  with 
the  red  men ;  they  keep  all.  The  national  material- 
ism and  indifference  to  great  universal  principles  of 
Right  shows  itself  clearer  and  clearer.  Submission 
to  Money  or  the  Majority  is  the  one  idea  that  per- 
vades the  nation.  There  are  few  great  voices  in  the 
American  churches  which  dare  utter  the  Eternal 
Justice  of  the  Infinite  God  and  rebuke  the  wicked- 
ness of  the  nation,  or  talk  as  with  a  trumpet,  Come 

VOL.  I.  29 


338  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

UP  HIGHER.  We  have  taken  a  feeble  tribe  of  men 
and  made  them  Slaves ;  we  kidnap  the  baby  newly 
born ;  tear  him  from  his  mother's  arms,  sell  him  like 
swine  in  the  market;  the  children  of  Jefferson  and 
Madison  are  Slaves  in  the  Christian  Republic.  The 
American  treats  his  African  victims  with  the  intens- 
est  scorn.  Even  in  Boston,  spite  of  Constitution 
and  Statute  Law,  they  are  ignominiously  thrust  out 
of  the  common  school.  The  Clergy  are  the  anointed 
defenders  of  Slavery.  The  Whig  party  loves  Slavery 
as  a  tool  for  making  money ;  the  Democratic  party, 
however,  has  the  strongest  antipathy  to  the  African, 
and  uses  him  for  the  same  purpose.  How  many 
great  American  politicians  care  for  him  ? 

To  obtain  any  considerable  office  in  America,  a 
man  must  conciliate  one  of  these  two  —  the  Money 
power  or  the  Majority  power.  But  the  particular 
body  which  sways  the  destinies  of  the  nation,  or  its 
politics,  is  an  army  of  Slaveholders,  some  three  hun- 
dred thousand  strong.  They  direct  the  money  ;  they 
sway  the  majority ;  and  are  the  controlling  force  in 
America.  They  have  been  so  for  more  than  sixty 
years.  I  cannot  now  stop  and  weary  you  with 
showing  how  they  acquired  the  power,  and  how  they 
administer  it. 

In  the  history  of  mankind,  this  is  the  first  attempt 
to  found  a  State  on  the  natural  rights  of  man.  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  should  be  national 
unity  of  action  on  so  high  a  platform  as  that  which 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  339 

the  genius  of  Adams  and  Jefferson  presented  for  the 
people  then  militant  against  oppression.  There  is  a 
contradiction  in  the  consciousness  of  the  nation.  In 
our  industrial  civilization,  under  the  stimulus  of  love 
of  wealth,  and  its  consequent  social  and  ptolitical 
power,  we  have  made  such  a  rapid  advance  in  popu- 
lation and  riches  as  no  nation  ever  made.  The 
lower  powers  of  the  understanding  have  also  had  a 
great  development.  We  can  plan,  organize,  and 
administer  material  means  for  material  ends,  as  no 
nation  has  ever  done.  But  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  any  people  could  pass  all  at  once  from  the  mili- 
tary civilization,  with  its  fourfold  despotism,  to  an 
industrial  civilization  with  democracy  in  its  Church, 
State,  Community,  and  Family.  How  slowly  we 
learn ;  with  what  mistakes  do  we  come  to  the  true 
Idea,  and  how  painfully  enact  it  into  a  deed  I  But 
see  what  results  have  come  to  pass. 

In  1776,  there  were  about  784,093  miles  of  terri- 
tory ;  now  there  are  3,347,451.  Then  there  were 
about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people  ;  now  there 
are  four  and  twenty.  In  1790,  the  annual  revenue 
of  America  was  less  than  four  millions  of  dollars. 
Last  year  it  was  more  than  sixty-one.  Then  we  had 
less  than  698,000  Slaves ;  now  we  have  more  than 
3,204,000.  In  1776,  Slavery  was  exceptional ;  the 
nation  was  ashamed  of  it.  In  1774,  Mr.  Jefferson 
had  more  democratic  and  Christian  ideas  than  all 


340  THE  NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Virginia  has  now.  He  said,  "  The  abolition  of  domes- 
tic Slavery  is  the  greatest  desire  of  the  American  peo- 
ple." In  the  first  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, he  condemned  England  for  fastening  Slavery 
upon  us,  forbidding  us  to  abolish  the  Slave-trade.  He 
trembled  when  he  remembered  that  "  God  is  just." 
The  leading  men  of  the  nation  disliked  Slavery  on 
principle.  Some  excused  themselves  for  it,  —  "  Eng- 
land forced  it  on  us ;  "  some  thought  it  "  expedient 
as  a  measure ; "  all  thought  it  wrong  as  a  principle. 
During  the  Revolution,  the  white  Slaves  who  had 
been  soldiers,  became  free ;  there  has  not  been  any 
white  Slavery  —  of  the  old  kind  —  since  '76.  I 
know  some  families  in  this  city  whose  parents  came 
to  America  as  Slaves  —  white  Slaves,  I  mean. 
They  were  bought  in  England ;  they  were  sold  in 
America  —  sold  under  cruel  laws.  I  should  not  like 
to  mention  their  names  ;  but  in  1850,  they  were  the 
most  desperate  Hunkers  that  could  be  found.  Born 
of  Slaves,  the  iron  had  entered  their  contaminated 
souls,  and  they  sought  to  enslave  your  brethren  and 
my  parishioners.  These  were  the  children  of  white 
Slaves.  The  Indians  were  set  free  by  laws.  In 
most  of  the  States,  attempts  were  made  to  free  the 
blacks.  All  the  New  England  States  set  them  free  ; 
—  partly  by  the  programme  of  principles  in  their 
Constitutions ;  partly  by  the  decisions  of  Courts  ; 
partly  by  statute  law,  enacted  by  the  Legislature. 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  soon  followed. 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  341 

In  twelve  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
de^ice,  seven  of  the  thirteen  States  had  begun  efforts 
to  abolish  Slavery  forever.  The  truths  of  the  Decla- 
ration, carried  forward  New  England  and  other 
Northern  States  ;  nay,  the  momentum  of  the  Revo- 
lution carried  the  whole  of  Congress  forward,  and 
erelong,  America  performed  two  great  acts,  restrict- 
ing Despotocracy  —  establishing  Freedom  and  not 
Bondage.     Here  they  are. 

I.  In  1787,  the  General  government  had  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  North-Western  territory,  and  decreed 
that  therein  Slavery  should  never  exist,  to  all  time, 
save  as  a  punishment  for  crime  "  duly  convicted." 
On  that  spot,  there  have  since  grown  up  five  great 
States  ;  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wis- 
consin. Five  great  States,  with  four  and  a  half  mil- 
lions of  men,  and  not  a  Slave.  Near  a  million 
children  went  to  the  Schools  of  those  States  last 
year,  and  there  is  not  a  Slave.  Out  of  239,345 
square  miles,  there  is  not  an  inch  of  Slave  soil,  ex- 
cept what  stands  in  the  shoes  of  Senator  Douglas 
and  his  coadjutors.     That  is  the  first  thing. 

II.  In  1808,  America  abolished  the  Slave-trade. 
Before  that  it  was  carried  on  from  the  harbors  of 
New  England  ;  Boston,  Bristol,  Newport,  New 
York,  added  to  their  wealth  by  enslaving  men. 
These  were  the  great  ports  whence  men  cleared  for 

29* 


342  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Africa,  to  take  in  a  cargo  of  Slaves.  It  is  still  car- 
ried on  from  New  York  and  Boston  —  but  secret]^  ; 
then  it  was  openly  done.  Some  of  you,  whose 
hoary  heads  dignify  and  give  a  benediction  to  this 
audience,  may  perhaps  remember  the  Great  Rhode 
Island  Slave-trader,  who  occasionally  visited  this 
city,  and  if  your  eyes  ever  saw  him,  I  know  that 
your  hearts — then  hot  with  youth  —  recoiled  with 
indignation  at  such  a  sight  —  a  stealer  of  men  !  He 
seemed  to  be  born  for  a  Slave-trader ;  he  had  a  kid- 
napper's name  on  him  at  his  birth.  He  was  called 
Wolf! 

These  are  the  two  acts  of  the  Federal  government 
against  Slavery  since  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence. That  is  all  that  America  has  done  against 
Slavery,  in  eight  and  seventy  years.  She  has  multi- 
plied her  population  tenfold,  her  revenue  fifteen  fold, 
and  has  abolished  the  Slave-trade,  and  prohibited 
Slavery  in  the  North- Western  territory.  Now  see 
what  has  been  done  in  favor  of  Slavery. 

I.  This  is  the  first  step :  in  1787,  America  inau- 
gurated Slavery  into  the  Constitution. 

1.  She  left  it  in  the  Slave  States,  as  part  of  the 
"  Republican  "  Institutions. 

2.  Next,  she  provided  that  the  owners  of  Slaves 
should  have  their  property  represented  in  Congress, 
five  Slaves  counting  the  same  as  three  Freemen ; 
and,  at  this  day,  in  consequence  of  this  Iniquitous 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  343 

Act,  for  the  3,204,000  Slaves  which  she  has  stolen 
and  unjustly  holds,  the  South  has  delegates  in  Con- 
gress equal  to  the  representation  of  almost  two  rail- 
lions  of  Freemen  in  New  England. 

3.  It  was  agreed,  also,  that  Slaves  escaping  from 
the  service  of  their  masters  into  a  Free  State, 
should  not  thereby  recover  their  freedom,  but  should 
be  "  delivered  up." 

Here  were  three  concessions  made  to  Slavery  at 
first.  They  were  at  variance  with  the  programme 
of  principles  in  the  Declaration;  the  programme  of 
purpose  in  the  Constitution's  Preamble.  They  were 
known  to  be  at  variance  with  the  religion  of  Jesus 
in  the  New  Testament;  at  variance  with  the  laws 
of  Nature  and  of  God.  The  Convention  was 
ashamed  of  the  whole  thing,  and  added  hypocrisy  to 
its  crime :  it  did  not  dare  mention  the  word  Slave. 
That  was  the  first  great  step  against  Freedom.  It 
has  cost  us  millions  of  people.  We  should  have 
had  a  population  counting  millions  more.  It  has 
cost  us  hundreds  of  millions  of  money.  The  Whig 
is  poorer,  the  Democrat  has  a  smaller  majority. 
Aye,  it  has  cost  us  what  is  worth  more  than  both 
money  and  human  life  —  it  has  cost  manhood ;  it 
has  caused  us  crime,  falseness  to  our  nature  and 
our  God.  Just  now  the  "  Christian  Republic  "  com- 
mits a  greater  offence  against  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  all  morality,  all  religion,  than  the  Russian 


344  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

or  the  Turk,  or  any  Pagan  despotism  in  the  wide 
World ! 

How  came  it  ?  The  North  wanted  a  special 
privilege  of  Navigation ;  and  it  let  Slavery  into  the 
Constitution  for  that  pitiful  price.  Mr.  Gorham,  a 
representative  from  Massachusetts,  a  Boston  man, 
in  the  Convention,  declared  that  Massachusetts 
wanted  Union,  not  to  defend  herself,  she  could  do 
so,  and  had  done  so,  and  had  defended  others  along 
with  her ;  but  she  wanted  a  special  privilege  to 
trade.  I  am  ashamed  to  confess  it,  —  that  was  the 
Massachusetts  which  had  just  come  out  of  the 
Revolutionary  war.  Here  was  a  "  compromise  "  be- 
tween the  covetousness  of  the  North,  wanting  a 
special  privilege  of  navigation,  and  the  idleness  of 
the  South  wishing  to  eat  but  not  to  earn.  Between 
these  two  mill-stones  the  African  man  was  crushed 
into  a  Slave  —  a  mere  chattel  "  to  all  intents,  con- 
structions, and  purposes  whatsoever."  That  was 
the  first  step. 

II.  In  1792,  America  admitted  Kentucky  as  a 
new  State,  made  out  of  old  soil,  and  established 
Slavery  therein.  That  was  the  first  act  of  Congress 
establishing  new  Slavery  so  far  as  she  had  power. 
Since  then,  America  has  thrice  repeated  the  experi- 
ment ;  —  in  1796,  establishing  Slavery  in  Tennessee ; 
in  1817,  in  Mississippi;  and  in  1819,  in  Alabama  — 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  34'5 

three  new  States  made  afresh  out  of  old  Slave  soil. 
That  was  the  second  step. 

III.  In  1793,  America  adopted  Slavery  as  a 
Federal  Institution  ;  undertook  herself,  the  Federal 
government,  to  seize  and  deliver  up  the  Fugitive 
Slave.  She  took  no  such  charge  of  other  fugitive 
"  property."  She  was  not  Field-driver  for  horses 
and  mules,  only  the  Hog-reeve  for  fugitive  men, 
"  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable 
rights,"  "  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." That  was  the  third  step ;  and  the  great 
"  Expounder  of  the  Constitution "  declared  it  was 
"wholly  unconstitutional;"  every  free  man,  who 
thinks  with  a  free  mind,  I  am  confident  will  say  the 
same. 

IV.  In  1803,  Louisiana  was  purchased  from 
France  and  organized  into  a  territory,  with  Slavery 
in  it.  This  was  the  first  attempt  of  America  to  carry 
the  hateful  institution  upon  new  soil,  acquired  since 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  1812,  Louisiana 
was  admitted  as  a  State  with  Slavery  in  it ;  the  first 
Slave  State  made  out  of  new  soil,  acquired  after  the 
Declaration.  Hitherto  Slavery  had  been  confined  to 
the  Atlantic  slope  of  the  continent ;  in  1792  the  Fed- 
eral government  established  it  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi ;  in  1803,  for  the  first  time,  she  carried  it 
West  of  the  great  river.     That  was  the  fourth  step. 


346  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

V.  In  1819-20,  Missouri  was  organized  as  a  State ; 
in  1821,  admitted  with  Slavery  in  it.  Before  this 
time.  Slavery  had  receded  from  the  North.  On  the 
Atlantic,  it  did  not  reach  up  to  the  fortieth  parallel 
of  latitude  ;  on  the  Mississippi,  it  sunk  below  the 
thirty-seventh.  But  by  admitting  Missouri,  it  all  at 
once  rose  to  the  fortieth  parallel  of  latitude.  Here, 
however,  there  was  a  great  battle.  The  South 
wanted  Slavery  to  extend  all  the  way  from  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  to  the  British  line.  The  North  wanted  to 
restrict  Slavery  by  the  Mississippi  river,  and  not 
carry  it  West.  A  few  Northern  men  were  bought 
up ;  nothing  is  more  marketable  than  Northern  poli- 
ticians. Whig  or  Democrat,  it  makes  no  odds,  both 
are  lieges  of  the  Almighty  Dollar.  Wickedness  pre- 
vailed ;  Missouri  came  in  with  her  slaves.  However, 
there  was  a  "  Compromise ; "  —  the  celebrated  Mis- 
souri Compromise,  by  which  Slavery  was  restricted 
in  the  Louisiana  territory  North  of  36°  30'.  Then, 
all  the  territory  South  thereof  was  made  over  to  that 
institution.  In  1836,  Arkansas  was  organized  as  a 
territory,  and  came  in  as  a  State  with  Slavery.  In 
the  territory  of  Louisiana,  bought  in  1803,  there  are 
now  423,172  Slaves.     That  was  the  fifth  step. 

VI.  In  1845,  Florida  was  admitted  as  a  Slave 
State,  with  a  Constitution  providing  that  the  "  Gen- 
eral Assembly  shall  have  no  power  to  pass  laws 
emancipating  Slaves,"  or  to  forbid  emigrants  to  bring 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  347 

their  Slaves  with  them.  Here,  Slavery  was  ex- 
tended over  territory  acquired  for  that  purpose  from 
Spain  in  1819-21 ;  made  perpetual  therein.  It  went 
down  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  reaching  far  in.  That 
was  the  sixth  step. 

VII.  In  1845,  Texas  was  "reannexed"  and  ad- 
mitted as  a  State.  This  was  territory  whence  the 
Mexicans  had  banished  Slavery.  Slavery  was  in 
the  Constitution  of  Texas  ;  was  carried  West  of  the 
territory  purchased  of  France,  and  spread  over 
325,520  square  miles.  It  was  established  in  a  terri- 
tory forty-three  times  greater  than  Massachusetts,  by 
and  by  to  be  carved  into  more  Slave  States.  This 
was  the  first  time  that  America  had  ever  established 
Slavery  in  a  land  whence  any  government  had  posi- 
tively driven  it  out.     That  was  the  seventh  step. 

VIII.  In  1848,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  for 
plundering  Mexico,  by  conquest  and  treaty,  we  ac- 
quired California,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico  —  a  terri- 
tory of  more  than  596,000  square  miles.  This  was 
coveted  as  new  ground  for  the  extension  of  Slavery. 
The  Mexican  war  was  begun  and  continued  for 
Slavery  ;  the  land  was  to  be  Slave  soil.  This  was 
the  first  time  we  had  conquered  new  land  in  battle 
for  the  sake  of  putting  Slavery  on  it.  That  was  the 
eighth  step. 


348  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

IX.  In  1850,  you  remember  the  cry,  "  The  Union 
is  in  clanger  !  "  —  How  lustUy  men  roared  :  "  The 
Union  is  in  danger  ! "  —  How  the  politicians  talked, 
and  the  ministers  I  The  "  pedlars  of  oratory  "  took 
the  stump.  You  remember  the  "  Boston  eloquence  " 
that  screamed,  and  tottered  and  stood  a  tiptoe,  and 
spread  its  fingers,  and  tore  its  hair,  and  invaded  the 
very  heavens  with  its  scary  speech  ;  —  "  The  Union 
is  in  danger  —  this  hour!"  The  celebrated  Com- 
promise measures  were  passed.  So  far  as  it  con- 
cerns this  question,  they  consisted  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  —  of  which  I  do  not  think  you  wish  me, 
at  least,  to  speak  again ;  of  the  establishment  of  a 
territorial  government  in  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  ex- 
tending Slavery  over  407,667  square  miles,  —  a  terri- 
tory larger  than  fifty-three  States  of  the  size  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  it  paid  Texas  ten  millions  of  money  as 
a  gift  to  Slavery. 

That  was  the  greatest  step  of  all  since  Slavery 
was  inaugurated  in  the  Constitution.  It  was  the 
most  insulting  to  the  North ;  it  was  most  revolting 
to  our  political  ideas  and  the  principles  of  our  pro- 
fessed religion.  You  remember  the  stir,  and  tumult, 
and  storm.  You  have  not  forgotten  the  promise  that 
"  agitation  was  to  cease."  In  1852,  the  Whigs  de- 
cided to  "  discountenance  "  agitation ;  and  the  Dem- 
ocrats, being  stronger  and  more  audacious,  declared 
that  they  would  resist  all  attempts  to  renew  the  agi- 
tation on  the  question  of  Slavery,  in  Congress  or  out, 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  349 

in  whatsoever   shape.      That  was  the  ninth  great 
step. 

In  1776,  African  Slavery  existed  in  all  the  thirteen 
States.  In  a  few  years  it  shrunk  Southward.  In 
1790,  the  end  of  Delaware  in  40°  was  its  Northern 
Atlantic  limit;  on  the  Mississippi,  it  fell  away  to 
less  than  37°.  Below  the  snaky  line  which  separates 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  on 
the  South,  from  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio, 
on  the  North,  East  of  the  "  Father  of  Waters,"  on 
the  Atlantic  slopes  of  the  continent  —  the  monster 
had  scope  and  verge  enough.  North  and  West  of 
these  limits  he  dared  not  show  his  head.  But  in 
that  year,  America  bought  of  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia a  field  "  ten  miles  square,"  as  Capital  of  the 
United  States ;  in  1800,  the  seat  of  government  was 
transferred  from  Philadelphia  to  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia ;  in  1802,  Congress  reenacted  the  Slave  codes 
of  Virginia  and  Maryland,  extending  them  over  the 
Capital  of  the  nation.  Behold  the  Federal  govern- 
ment of  the  sole  Christian  Republic  of  the  world  has 
its  head-quarters  on  Slave  soil  I  Congress  had  gone 
South  —  ominous  change!  Since  that  day,  no 
State  has  abolished  Slavery.  It  still  exists  in  the 
six  old  States :  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia.  It  has 
spread  into  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Missis- 
sippi, four  new  States,  in  twenty  years  made  out  of 

VOL.  I.  30 


350  THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

the  territory  of  the  old  States.  It  has  been  put 
anew  into  Louisiana,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Florida, 
Texas,  —  five  new  States  made  out  of  territory  ac- 
quired for  extending  the  area  of  Slavery.  It  has 
been  carried  to  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  —  land  plun- 
dered from  Mexico  for  this  purpose.  The  white 
polygamy  of  .Joe  Smith,  and  the  black  polygamy  of 
men  yet  more  shameless,  there  flourish  side  by  side. 
It  has  spread  over  1,051,523  square  miles,  where 
there  was  no  legal  Slavery  at  all  in  1788.  It  has 
blotted  the  Mississippi  Valley  with  more  than 
1,580,000  Slaves.  It  has  put  Slavery  in  a  popula- 
tion of  3,250,303  white  persons,  which  else  would 
never  have  had  an  entailment  of  this  curse  upon 
then-  property,  their  education,  and  their  morality 
and  their  religion ! 

Why  was  all  this  ?  Has  the  South  the  most 
money,  and  so  can  buy  up  the  North  ?  the  most 
votes,  and  so  can  scare  us  by  overwhelming  num- 
bers ?  Not  at  all ;  the  South  is  poor  in  money ;  in 
numbers  she  is  weak.  The  North  is  strong  in  both. 
The  South  wanted  Slavery,  the  North  did  not  want 
Freedom  for  the  African.  Before  1808,  Northern 
clergymen  occasionally  ventured  their  little  savings 
in  the  Slave-trade :  since  1808,  they  obey  with 
alacrity  all  attempts  of  the  Slave  power  to  blas- 
pheme the  Higher  Law  of  God !  At  each  step,  the 
South  becomes  more  imperious,  more  insulting. 
She  has  served  us  right!     Nine  times  she  has  de- 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  351 

manded  a  sacrifice  —  nine  times  the  North  has 
granted  the  demand.  In  some  twenty-four  millions 
of  men,  every  seventh  man  is  a  Slave ;  the  children 
of  Jefferson  and  Madison  are  sold  at  public  vendue. 
Senator  Foote  roared  in  the  Capitol ;  his  father's 
sons  were  Slaves  in  the  same  street  I  It  is  "  a  great 
country ;  "  a  "  Union  "  worth  saving  I 

But  who  is  to  blame  for  all  this  ?  The  North  has 
had  the  majority  in  the  Federal  councils  from  the 
beginning.  It  is  the  North  who  is  to  blame  for 
these  nine  steps  —  for  establishing,  spreading,  foster- 
ing, and  perpetuating  the  worst  institution  where- 
with the  Spaniard  has  dared  to  blot  the  Western 
continent.  Who  put  Slavery  in  the  Constitution ; 
made  it  Federal  ?  who  put  it  in  the  new  States  ? 
who  got  new  soil  to  plant  it  in  ?  who  carried  it 
across  the  Mississippi  —  into  Louisiana,  Florida, 
Texas,  Utah,  New  Mexico  ?  who  established  it  in 
the  Capital  of  the  United  States  ?  who  adopted 
Slavery  and  volunteered  to  catch  a  runaway,  in 
1793,  and  repeated  the  act  in  1850,  —  in  defiance  of 
all  law,  all  precedent,  all  right  ?  Why,  it  was  the 
North.  "  Spain  armed  herself  with  bloodhounds," 
said  Mr.  Pitt,  "  to  extirpate  the  wretched  natives  of 
America."  In  1850,  the  Christiai^  Democracy  set 
worse  bloodhounds  afoot  to  pursue  Ellen  Craft ; 
offered  them  five  dollars  for  the  run,  if  they  did  not 
take  her ;  ten  if  they  did  !  The  price  of  blood  was 
Northern    money ;    the    bloodhounds  —  they    were 


352  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Kidnappers  born  at  the  North,  bred  there,  kennelled 
in  her  chiirch,  fed  on  her  sacraments,  blessed  by  her 
priests !  In  1778,  Mi-.  Pitt  had  a  yet  harsher  name 
for  the  beasts  wherewith  despotic  Spain  hunted  the 
red  man  in  the  woods  —  he  called  them  "  Hell 
Hounds.''''  But  they  only  hunted  "  savages,  heathens, 
men  born  in  barbarous  lands."  What  would  he  say 
of  the  pack  which  in  1851  hunted  American  Chris- 
tians, in  the  "  Athens  of  America,"  and  stole  a  man 
on  the  grave  of  Hancock  and  Adams  —  all  Boston 
looking  on,  and  its  priests  blessing  the  dead ! 

The  Slave  Power  is  now  ready  to  take  the  tenth 
step.  It  wants  these  things :  the  acquisition  of 
Cuba,  the  Mesilla  Valley,  the  enslavement  of  Ne- 
braska. Of  the  first  and  second,  I  shall  not  now 
say  any  thing.  The  third  is  a  most  important  mat- 
ter. It  is  an  attempt  to  establish  Slavery  in  a  new 
country.  First,  in  a  country  w^here  it  never  existed 
to  any  extent.  There  is  only  one  American  in  the 
territory  known  to  have  ever  held  a  Slave.  That  is 
a  missionary  w^ho  went  thither  from  Boston,  and,  for 
a  thousand  dollars,  bought  a  man  in  Missouri,  to 
serve  as  help  for  his  sick  wife,  —  the  only  Slave  ever 
held  by  an  American  in  Nebraska,  so  far  as  Senator 
Douglas  is  informed ;  and  of  all  men  the  most,  he 
ought  to  know. 

Next,  it  is  an  attempt  by  the  Federal  government 
to  establish  it  in  a  territory  where  it  has  been  pro- 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  353 

hibited  by  the  Federal  government  itself,  by  the 
solemn  enactment  of  Congress,  made  thirty-three 
years  ago,  at  a  time  when  all  the  North  swore 
solemnly  that  it  would  not  suffer  Slavery  to  come 
North  another  inch. 

Do  you  know  what  is  the  population  of  Nebraska  ? 
There  are  not  one  thousand  Americans  in  it.  There 
is  a  delegate  from  Nebraska  at  "Washington.  He  had 
seventy  votes,  out  of  this  vast  territory !  There  were 
two  competitors,  and  I  suppose  there  could  not  have 
been  more  than  two  hundred  votes  cast ;  I  doubt  if 
there  were  one  hundred. 

It  is  an  immense  territory,  485,000  square  miles ; 
larger  than  sixty-two  States  of  the  size  of  Massachu- 
setts. It  contains  as  much  land  as  all  the  Thirteen 
States  that  fought  the  Revolution,  and  more  than 
121,000  square  miles  besides.  Draw  a  line  from 
Trieste  to  Amsterdam,  — Nebraska  is  larger  than  the 
part  of  Western  Europe  thus  cut  off.  It  contains 
more  than  all  the  Fourteen  Free  States  East  of  the 
Mississippi  :  —  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan, 
Indiana,  Elinois,  and  Wisconsin  —  and  83,393 
square  miles  over  and  above.  It  reaches  from  the 
Western  boundary  of  Missouri  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. It  extends  from  37°  North  latitude  to  49°  — 
twelve  degrees  of  latitude ;  and  from  94°  longitude 
to  114°  —  twenty  degrees  of  longitude.  Its  waters 
30* 


354  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

run  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and 
to  Hudson's  Bay.  The  blood  of  the  Slave  will  reach 
"  Greenland's  icy  mountains,"  and  stain  the  waters 
at  the  mouth  of  Baffin's  Bay;  the  Saskatchawan, 
its  great  Northern  river,  will  drain  the  Slave  soil  into 
Lake  Winnepeg,  and  the  keel  of  Captain  Kane's 
ship,  returning  from  his  adventurous  quest  in  the 
Arctic  sea,  will  pass  through  waters  that  are  dark- 
ened by  the  last  great  crime  of  America ! 

The  Slave  power  has  long  been  seeking  to  extend 
its  jurisdiction.  It  has  eminently  succeeded.  It  fills 
all  the  chief  offices  of  the  nation  ;  the  Presidents  are 
Slave  Presidents;  the  Supreme  Court  is  of  Slave 
Judges,  every  one  ;  the  District  Judges,  —  you  all 
know  Judge  Sprague,  Judge  Grier,  Judge  Kane.  In 
all  that  depends  on  the  political  action  of  America, 
the  Slave  power  carries  the  day.  In  what  depends 
on  industry,  population,  education,  it  is  the  North. 
The  Slave  power  seeks  to  extend  its  institutions  at 
the  expense  of  humanity.  The  North  works  with  it. 
Li  this  century,  the  South  has  been  foiled  in  only  two 
efforts  :  to  extend  Slavery  to  California  and  Oregon : 
nine  times  it  has  succeeded. 

Now  see  why  the  South  wishes  to  establish  Sla- 
very in  Nebraska. 

1.  She  wishes  to  gain  a  direct  power  in  Congress. 
So  she  wants  new  Slave  States,  that  she  may  have 
new  Slave  Senators  to  give  her  the  uttermost  power 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 


THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION.  355 

2.  Next,  she  wishes  indirectly  to  gain  power  by 
directly  checking  the  rapid  growth  of  the  free  States 
of  the  North.  If  Nebraska  is  free,  the  tide  of  immi- 
gration will  set  thither,  as  once  to  Ohio,  Michigan, 
Illinois,  as  now  to  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Minesota. 
There  will  be  a  rapid  increase  of  free  men,  with  their 
consequent  wealth,  education,  ideas,  democratic  in- 
stitutions, free  States,  with  consequent  political 
power. 

All  this  the  South  wishes  to  avoid  ;  for  the  South 
—  I  must  say  it  —  is  the  enemy  of  the  North.  She 
is  the  foe  to  Northern  industry  —  to  our  mines,  our 
manufactures,  and  our  commerce.  Thrice,  in  my 
day,  has  she  sought  to  ruin  all  three.  She  is  the  foe 
to  our  institutions  —  to  our  Democratic  politics  in 
the  State,  our  Democratic  culture  in  the  school,  our 
Democratic  work  in  the  community,  our  Democratic 
equality  in  the  family,  and  our  Democratic  religion  in 
the  Church.  Hear  what  a  great  Slave  organ  says  of 
religion: — "The  Bible  has  been  vouchsafed  to  man- 
kind for  the  purpose  of  keeping  us  out  of  hell-fire  and 
getting  us  into  Heaven  by  the  mysteries  of  faith  and 
the  inner  life  —  not  to  teach  us  ethnology,  govern- 
ment," etc.  It  is  the  Editor  of  the  Richmond  Exam- 
iner who  says  that ;  the  American  Charge  at  Turin. 

I  say  the  South  is  the  enemy  of  the  North.  Eng- 
land is  the  rival  of  the  North,  a  powerful  rival,  often 
dangerous;    sometimes    a   mean   and    dishonorable 


356  THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

rival.  But  the  South  is  oxirfoe,  —  far  more  danger- 
ous, meaner,  and  more  dishonorable.  England  keeps 
treaties;  the  South  breaks  faith.  She  broke  faith 
individually,  and  Webster  lies  there  a  wreck  on  the 
shore  of  his  own  estate ;  breaks  it  nationally,  "  and 
renews  the  agitation  !  "  I  always  knew  she  would ; 
I  never  trusted  her  lying  breath  ;  I  warned  my  broth- 
ers and  sisters  against  it :  now  she  fulfils  the  ex- 
pectation. She  is  the  enemy  of  our  material  welfare 
and  our  spiritual  development.  Her  success  is  our 
ruin.  Our  welfare  shames  her  institutions,  her  ideas, 
and  is  the  destruction  to  her  "  peculiar  institution." 
She  has  been  beaten  in  her  effort  to  blot  the  Territory 
of  Oregon  with  Slavery ;  but  she  never  surrenders. 
This  I  honor  in  the  South,  —  she  is  always  true  to 
her  own  institution,  and  her  own  idea.  I  honor  the 
man  who,  on  Plymouth  Rock,  when  the  sons  of  the 
Puritans  crouched  and  shrunk  down,  and  scarce  one 
brave  word  could  get  spoken  for  humanity  and  the 
great  rights  of  man  which  om*  fathers  brought  across 
the  sea,  —  I  honor  the  Southern  man  who  stood  up 
and  claimed  that  Slavery  should  be  protected,  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  and  told  one  Northern  candidate 
for  the  Presidency  that  he  also  had  once  offered  and 
volunteered  to  shoulder  his  musket,  "  the  old  Middle- 
sex musket,"  and  march  South  to  put  down  an  in- 
surrection of  Slaves.  I  say,  I  honor  a  man's  fidelity 
to  his  own  principle,  even  if  it  is  a  base  one. 


THE  NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  357 

Such  are  the  two  general  reasons  why  the  South 
wishes  Slavery  in  this  new  territory.  But  here  is  a 
third  reason,  quite  special. 

3.  There  must  be  communication  with  the  West. 
Three  railroads  are  possible ;  one  lies  through  Mexi- 
can territory,  but  we  have  not  got  it,  for  the  Gadsden 
treaty  is  not  yet  a  fact  accomplished :  —  two  others 
lie  through  Nebraska  territory.  One  or  the  other  of 
them  must  be  built.  If  Nebraska  is  free  soil,  the 
Slave  master  cannot  take  his  slave  across,  for  the 
law  of  the  free  soil  makes  the  black  man  free.  But 
if  Nebraska  is  a  Slave  State,  then  the  master  can  go 
there  and  carry  his  "  chattels  personal,"  —  coffles  of 
men,  droves  of  women,  herds  of  children,  attended  by 
the  "  missionary  from  Boston,"  and  the  bloodhounds 
of  the  kidnapper.  She  wants  right  of  way  for  her 
institution ;  a  slave  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Pacific.  Such  are  the  reasons  why  she  wants  to 
establish  Slavery  there. 

See  what  encourages  the  South  to  make  new  en- 
croachments. She  has  been  eminently  successful  in 
her  former  demands,  especially  with  the  last.  The 
authors  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  did  not  think  that 
enormity  could  be  got  through  Congress  :  it  was  too 
atrocious  in  itself,  too  insulting  to  the  North.  But 
Northern  men  sprang  forward  to  defend  it  —  power- 
ful politicians  supported  it  to  the  fullest  extent.  The 
worse  it  was,  the  better  they  liked  it.  Northern 
merchants  were  in  favor  of  it  —  it  "  would  conciliate 


358  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

the  South."  Northern  ministers  in  all  the  churches 
of  commerce  baptized  it,  defended  it  out  of  the  Old 
Testament,  or  the  New  Testament.  The  Senator  of 
Boston  gave  it  his  mighty  aid,  —  he  went  through 
the  land  a  huckster  of  Slavery,  peddling  Atheism : 
the  Representative  of  Boston  gave  it  his  vote.  Their 
constituents  sustained  both  !  All  the  great  cities  of 
the  North  executed  the  bill.  The  leading  Journals  of 
Boston  advised  the  merchants  to  withhold  all  com- 
mercial intercourse  from  Towns  which  opposed  Kid- 
napping. There  was  a  "  Union  Meeting  "  at  Faneuil 
Hall.  You  remember  the  men  on  the  platform  :  the 
speeches  are  not  forgotten.  The  doctrine  that  there 
is  a  Law  of  God  above  the  passions  of  the  multitude 
and  the  ambition  of  their  leaders,  was  treated  with 
scorn  and  hooting  :  a  loud  guffaw  of  vulgar  ribaldry 
went  up  against  the  Justice  of  the  Infinite  God !  All 
the  great  cities  did  the  same.  Atheism  was  inaugu- 
rated as  the  first  principle  of  Republican  govern- 
ment; in  politics,  religion  makes  men  mad  I  Mr. 
Clay  declared  that  "  no  Northern  gentleman  will  ever 
help  return  a  fugitive  Slave  !  "  What  took  place  at 
Philadelphia  ?  New  York  ?  Cincinnati  ?  —  nay,  at 
Boston  ?  The  Northern  churches  of  commerce 
thought  Slavery  was  a  blessing.  Kidnapping  a 
"  grace."  The  Democrats  and  Whigs  vie  with  each 
other  in  devotion  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  The 
"  Compromises "  are  the  golden  rule.  The  North 
conquered  her  prejudices.     The  South  sees  this,  and 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  359 

makes  another  demand.     Why  not  ?     I  am  glad  of 
it.     She  serves  us  right. 

There  is  one  thing  more  which  helps  her.  The 
South,  weak  in  numbers,  weak  in  money,  has  yet  a 
certain  unity  of  idea,  —  that  of  Slavery.  She  has  the 
political  skill  to  control  the  money  and  the  numbers 
of  the  North.  She  always  makes  the  Presidents. 
As  the  Catholic  priest  takes  a  bit  of  baker's  bread, 
and  says,  "  Bread  thou  art,  become  a  God !  "  and  the 
dough  is  God,  —  so  the  South  takes  any  man  and 
transubstantiates  him,  —  "  Thou  art  a  man  !  become 
a  President!"  And  by  political  transubstantiation 
Polk  and  Pierce  are  Presidents,  to  be  "lifted  up,"  to 
be  "  exhibited,"  set  on  high,  and  worshipped  accord- 
ingly. Now  the  Northern  lump  covets  exceedingly 
this  presidential  transubstantiation ;  but  to  attain 
thereunto,  it  must  be  of  the  right  leaven  for  the 
South.  A  new  President  is  presently  to  be  kneaded 
together,  to  be  baked  to  the  requisite  hardness,  tran- 
substantiated, and  then  set  up  in  1856.  Several  old 
Ephraims,  alas !  cakes  "  not  turned,"  begin  to  swell, 
and  bubble,  and  crack,  and  break,  hoping  presently 
to  be  in  condition  to  be  transubstantiated.  Some 
Northern  dough  is  leavening  itself  to  suit  the  South- 
ern taste.  Alas  I  "  It  is  not  in  man  that  walketh  to 
direct  his  steps."  Many  are  leavened,  but  few  rise. 
A  Northern  man,  a  bold  adventurer,  a  bar-room  poli- 
tician of  Illinois,  born  in  Vermont,  they  say,  has  long 


360  THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

coveted  Presidential  transubstantiation.  He  has 
tempered  his  measures  of  meal  with  Southern 
leaven  :  he  is  a  Slaveholder  —  not  born  so ;  he 
courted  Slavery  and  "  married  on ; "  he  has  stirred 
into  his  character  a  great  amount  of  appropriate 
leaven,  —  the  "  emptyings  "  of  Southern  firkins,  the 
leavings  of  Southern  feasts,  the  yeasty  scum  and 
iroth  of  the  Southern  consciousness  where  Slavery 
heats  and  swelters  and  keeps  up  a  perpetual  fermen- 
tation. In  1852,  all  his  leaven  was  of  no  avail ;  even 
the  heat  of  the  Baltimore  Convention  could  not 
make  him  rise  to  the  requisite  degree.  Now  he  adds 
more  potent  leaven,  and  drugs  his  Northern  dough, 
hoping  the  lump  will  rise  a  Presidential  loaf! 

Mr.  Douglas  has  made  his  bid  for  the  Presidency. 
He  claims  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  was 
abolished  in  1850.  Nobody  knew  it  then ;  not  he 
himself:  it  is  his  last  discovery.  Then  he  claims 
that  Congress  has  no  right  to  say  that  Slavery  shall 
not  be  in  the  territory. 

So  the  question  is,  shall  we  let  Slavery  into  the 
two  great  territories  of  Kanzas  and  Nebraska  ? 
That  is  a  question  of  political  Economy.  Here  it 
is.  Shall  men  work  with  poor  industrial  tools,  or 
with  good  ones  ?  Shall  they  have  the  varied  indus- 
try of  New  England  and  the  North,  or  the  Slave 
labor  of  Virginia  and  Carolina  ?  Shall  their  land 
be  worth  five  dohars  and  eight  cents  an  acre,  as  in 


THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION.  361 

South  Carolina,  or  thirty  dollars  and  a  half  as  in 
Connecticut  ?  Shall  the  people  all  be  comfortable, 
engaged  in  honest  work,  which  enriches  while  it 
elevates ;  or  shall  a  part  be  the  poorest  of  the  world 
that  a  few  may  be  idle  and  rich  ? 

It  is  a  question  of  political  Morality.  Shall  the 
Government  be  a  commonwealth  where  all  are  citi- 
zens, or  an  aristocracy  where  man  owns  his  brother 
man  ?  Shall  there  be  the  schools  of  Ohio,  or  the 
ignorance  of  Tennessee?  Shall  it  be  a  virtue  and 
a  dignity  to  teach,  as  it  is  in  the  public  schools  of 
Boston ;  a  great  charity,  as  some  of  you  are  admin- 
istering in  private  schools  for  the  ignorant  and  poor ; 
or  shall  it  be  a  crime,  as  in  Virginia,  where  Mrs. 
Douglas,  by  sentence  of  Court,  is  now  serving  out 
her  time  in  the  House  of  Correction,  for  teaching  a 
black  child  its  letters  ?  Shall  there  be  the  public 
libraries,  newspapers,  lectures,  lyceums,  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  or  the  ignorance,  the  ignoble  sloth  of  Mis- 
sissippi and  Alabama  ?  Aye  !  it  is  a  question  of 
domestic  morality.  Shall  a  man  have  a  right  to  his 
own  limbs,  his  liberty,  his  life  ?  Shall  the  mother 
own  the  babe  that  is  born  from  her  bosom  ?  Shall 
she  be  a  maid,  and  keep  her  innocence  and  her 
honor?  Shall  she  be  a  wife,  faithful  to  him  that 
she  loves,  or  shall  she  be  the  instrument  of  a  master's 
lust,  who  has  the  law  to  enforce  rape  and  violence  ? 
That  is  the  question. 

It  is  a  great  religious  question.     Shall  the  pas- 

VOL.  I.  31 


362  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

sions  and  ambition  of  base  men  have  rule  in  Ne- 
braska, or  the  natural  law  of  the  most  High  God  ? 
The  Unitarian  Autumnal  Convention  at  Worcester, 
debated  the  gi-eat  question,  whether  men  should 
have  a  Litany  in  the  Churches.  The  American 
Tract  Society,  the  American  Missionary  Society, 
have  questions  of  similar  magnitude,  which  come 
before  them.  This  is  not  thought  a  religious  ques- 
tion. It  is  only  one  which  concerns  the  welfare  of 
millions  of  men,  in  hundreds  of  years  yet  to  come ; 
aye !  thousands  I  The  prayer  of  the  Puritan,  his 
self-denial,  his  trust  in  God,  and  love  of  the  right,  — 
they  are  the  best  inheritance  New  England  ever  got 
—  shall  w^e  extend  the  best  institutions  of  New  Eng- 
land to  Nebraska ;  or  shall  we  send  there  the  Slave- 
driver  with  his  whip,  with  his  bloodhound,  with  his 

politician  and  his 1  shall  I  say  the  next  word  ? 

I  pass  it  by.  That  question  must  be  answered  in  a 
month ;  in  one  short  month ;  aye  I  perhaps,  in  a 
week. 

In  sixty  years,  Virginia  has  not  doubled,  her  popu- 
lation, while  New  York  has  ten  times  the  population 
of  1790.  The  most  valuable  export  of  Virginia,  is 
her  Slaves,  enriched  by  the  "  best  blood  of  the  old 
dominion ; "  the  "  Mother  of  Presidents  "  is  also  the 
great  Slave  Breeder  of  America.  Since  she  ceased 
to  import  bondmen  from  Africa,  her  Slaves  become 
continually  paler  in  the  face  ;  it  is  the  "  effect  of 
the  climate  "  —  and  Democratic  Listitutions.     One 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  363 

quarter  of  her  Slaves  have  but  one-fourth  African 
blood  in  their  veins ;  half  of  her  Slaves  are  half 
white.  The  Ethiopian  is  changing  his  skin.  Be- 
neficent "  effect  of  the  climate  "  —  and  Democratic 
Institutions !  By  the  laws  of  Virginia,  it  is  a  crime 
punishable  by  imprisonment,  to  deny  the  master's 
right  to  hold  his  Slave  ;  it  was  lately  proposed  in 
her  Legislature,  to  exclude  from  the  jury-box  all  per- 
sons guilty  of  this  opinion.  Her  present  law  pro- 
vides that  men  of  three  fourths  white  descent  shall 
be  free  —  it  is  now  proposed  to  enslave  all  who  have 
less  than  nine  tenths  Caucasian  blood  ;  so  the  blood 
of  "Jefferson  and  Sally,"  micontaminated  by  any 
new  African  admixture,  must  pass  through  yet  four 
other  Slave-breeding  Presidents  before  it  is  entitled 
to  freedom !  New  York  has  862,507  children  at  her 
Public  Schools.  Virginia  makes  it  a  crime  to  teach 
writing  and  reading  to  Slaves.  Her  highest  litera- 
ture is  partisan  newspapers  and  speeches ;  her  no- 
blest men  are  nothing  but  party  politicians  ;  her  chief 
manufacture  is  Slaves  —  children  of  her  own  Cau- 
casian loins,  begotten  for  exportation.  She  stocks 
the  plantations  of  Alabama  and  the  bagnios  of  New 
Orleans.  Shall  we  establish  in  Nebraska  the  insti- 
tutions of  Virginia?     Let  the  North  answer.     . 

I  know  Northern  politicians  say,  "  Slavery  will 
never  go  there ! "  Do  they  believe  their  own  word  ? 
They  believe  it !  In  1820,  they  said  it  could  not  go 
to  Missouri ;    then,  there  were  but  10,222  therein ; 


364         THE  NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

now,  87,422 !  more  than  a  quarter  of  all  the  Slaves 
in  the  United  States  are  North  of  36°  30'.  Despe- 
rate men  from  the  Slave  States  of  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Mississippi,  too  miserable  to  reach  California, 
will  find  then-  El  Dorado  in  Nebraska,  take  Slaves 
there  and  work  their  lives  out  I  It  will  be  a  better 
breeding  State  than  Virginia  herself. 

Congi-ess,  it  is  said,  has  no  right  to  legislate  for 
the  people  of  the  territory  against  Sla\ery.  It  must 
be  left  to  the  inhabitants  thereof.  There  are  485,000 
square  miles, — not  1,000  men,  not  two  hundred 
voters.  Shall  two  hundred  squatters  entail  Slavery 
on  a  country  as  large  as  all  Germany,  Switzerland, 
France,  Belgium,  and  Holland  ?  Is  it  "  democratic  " 
for  Congress  to  allow  two  hundred  stragglers  in  the 
wilderness,  cheating  the  Indians,  swearing,  violent, 
half  of  them  unable  to  write  or  read,  —  is  it  demo- 
cratic in  Congress  to  allow  these  vagabonds  of  the 
wilderness  to  establish  the  worst  institution  which 
Spain  brought  out  of  the  middle  ages  ;  which  West- 
ern Europe  casts  off  with  scorn ;  which  Russia 
treads  under  her  feet ;  which  Turkey  rejects  with  in- 
dignation, —  and  spread  this  over  a  country  larger 
than  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  when  Julius  Caesar 
was  cradled  in  his  mother's  arms  ?  If  it  is  so,  let 
me  go  back  and,  O,  most  Imperial  Nicholas  I  let  me 
learn  political  justice  from  thee,  thou  last  great  ty- 
rant of  the  Western  world  ! 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTIOX.  365 

Suppose  we  grant  this,  —  will  that  be  the  end? 
Suppose  Slavery  flows  into  Nebraska,  —  is  that  all  ? 
This  is  the  tenth  time  that  Slavery  has  demanded  a 
great  wrong,  and  the  North  has  said,  "  Yes,  I  will  do 
it."  Eaeh  time  it  has  been  a  greater  and  worser 
wrong.  Our  great  enemy  demands  sacrifices,  not 
of  interests  but  of  principle;  the  sacred  principle 
of  natural  right,  allegiance  to  the  Eternal  God. 
"  Grant  it,"  say  they,  "  or  we  will  dissolve  the  Union." 
Presently  that  cry  will  be  raised  again,  "  Save  the 
Union !  Oh  !  save  the  Union."  "  The  Union  is  in 
danger  —  this  hour ! "  will  be  rung  again  in  our 
deceived  ears.  Suppose  it  is  granted.  Only  once 
in  seventy  years  has  the  Southern  demand  been  re- 
jected,—  when  she  asked  to  put  Slavery  into  Ore- 
gon. But  the  conscience  of  the  North,  —  there  is 
not  much  of  it,  —  not  enough  to  act,  only  to  grum- 
ble, or  perchance  to  swear.  The  conscience  of  the 
North  complains.  "  Stop  that  agitation,  or  I  will 
dissolve  the  Union  at  once,"  says  the  South.  Then 
the  North  says  again,  "  Hush  I  Save  the  Union ! " 
and  there  will  not  be  a  whisper  from  Whig  or 
Democrat.  The  Church  has  got  its  mean  mouth 
sewed  up  with  an  iron  thread. 

Then  the  South  will  demand  again,  "  Grant  us 
this  demand,  or  we  will  dissolve  the  Union !  "  —  and 
the  same  thing  goes  over  and  over  again.  Do  you 
think  the  North  fears  a  dissolution  of  the  Union? 
As  much  as  I  fear  that  this  handful  of  flowers  shall 
31* 


366  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

rise  and  strike  the  life  out  of  my  soul.  No  I  No  I 
Think  not  of  that.  Is  it  love  of  Country  which 
prompts  the  Northern  sacrifice  of  conscience  ?  No ! 
never !  Never,  no !  It  is  love  of  the  dollar.  It  is 
love  of  the  power  of  the  majority,  of  the  Slave- 
holder's power,  not  love  of  man,  but  love  of  money. 
While  the  North  can  make  money  by  the  Union, 
there  is  no  danger  of  dissolution ! 

Grant  this,  and  see  what  follows.  I  omit  the 
probable  acts  of  individual  States,  over  which  Con- 
gress has  no  direct  control. 

I.  The  South  will  claim  that  the  master  has  a 
right  to  take  his  Slaves  into  a  free  State  —  spite  of 
its  laws  to  the  contrary  —  and  hold  them  there  — 
first,  for  a  definite  time,  say  seven  years ;  next,  for 
an  indefinite  period  in  perpetuity.  That  will  restore 
Slavery  to  the  North  and  enable  the  sons  of  New 
England  to  return  to  their  native  land  with  their 
"  chattels  personal."  Perhaps  it  will  require  no  Act 
of  Congress  to  do  this  —  and  "  supersede  "  the  Ordi- 
nance of  1787,  or  declare  it  "  inoperative  and  void." 
The  whole  may  be  done  any  day  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States ;  any  day  when  the 
President  shall  say,  "  Down  with  you,  Judges.  Do 
as  you  are  bid."  Whigs  and  Democrats  can  do  all 
things  through  money,  which  strengtheneth  them! 
will  the  North  consent?  Why  not,  nothing  is  so 
supple  as  the  Northern  neck. 


THE    NEBKASKA   QUESTION.  867 

II.  Then  the  South  will  seek  more  Slave  terri- 
tory. Here  is  what  is  wanted  :  —  a  part  of  Mexico, 
—  the  Gadsden  treaty  stipulates  for  about  39,000,000 
acres,  eight  States  as  large  as  Massachusetts ;  Cuba, 
which  the  Slave  power  has  long  coveted ;  Porto 
Rico  ;  Hayti,  which  the  Democratic  Christians  hate 
with  such  bitterness  ;  Jamaica  and  the  other  West 
Indies  ;  the  Sandwich  Islands ;  other  parts  of  the 
Northern  and  Southern  continent.  Slavery  must  be 
put  in  all  these  places.  Will  the  North  consent? 
Why  not  ?  habit  makes  all  things  easy.  What  an 
excellent  "  field  for  religious  enterprise  "  Hayti  would 
be,  if  this  Republic  should  restore  Slavery  to  St. 
Domingo !     Conquer  your  prej  udices  ! 

III.  Then  she  will  seek  to  restore  the  African 
Slave-trade.  Here  are  the  steps.  1,  to  authorize 
any  State  to  import  Slaves  ;  2,  to  authorize  any  in- 
dividual to  do  so  in  spite  of  the  adverse  laws  of  any 
State  which  will  be  declared  "inoperative  and  void," 
or  "  superseded."  I  can  foresee  the  arguments  for 
the  measure  —  Whig  and  Democratic —  Yes,  the 
theological  arguments,  drawn  from  the  Bible,  from 
"  conscience  and  the  Constitution."  Some  future 
Unitarian  Doctor  of  Divinity,  I  suppose,  for  a  "  con- 
sideration "  will  be  afraid  of  a  "  dissolution  of  the 
Union"  and  solve  the  problem  of  human  destina- 
tion by  offering  to  sacrifice  his  own  brother,  sister, 
wife,  daughter,  mother  !     Will  the  North  consent  ? 


368  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Why  stop  at  the  thirteenth  demand  and  not  at  the 
first,  at  the  ninth  ?  Is  it  worse  to  steal  Northern 
men  in  Africa,  than  Christian  babies  in  Virginia  ? 
Worse  to  steal  the  son  of  Pumbo  Jumbo  than  the 
daughters  of  Jefferson  !  Why  should  not  the  North 
consent  —  all  the  Slaves  are  to  be  voluntary  "  Mis- 
sionaries for  civilization  and  Christianity  I  "  What 
is  there  which  the  North  will  not  consent  to  ? 

Some  of  you  may  live  long  enough  to  see  all  this. 
The  Union  has  been  in  danger  five  times,  and  five 
times  saved  by  sacrifice  of  those  principles  which  lie 
at  the  basis  of  the  nation,  and  are  its  glory.  Is  that 
too  sad  a  prophecy,  even  to  be  spoken  ?  It  is  not 
worse  for  the  fifty  years  to  come,  than  for  the  fifty 
years  past;  it  is  only  the  history  of  the  last  fifty 
years. 

In  1775,  what  if  it  had  been  told  the  men  all  red 
with  battle  at  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill,  —  "  your 
sons  will  gird  the  Court  House  with  chains  to  kid- 
nap a  man ;  Boston  will  vote  for  a  Bill  which  puts 
the  liberty  of  any  man  in  the  hands  of  a  Commis- 
sioner, to  be  paid  twice  as  much  for  making  a  Slave 
as  for  declaring  a  freeman ;  and  Boston  will  call  out 
its  soldiers  to  hunt  a  man  through  its  streets!" 
What  if  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  when  Samuel 
Adams  said,  "  Oh !  what  a  glorious  morning  is 
this ! "  as  he  heard  the  tidings  of  war  in  the  little 
village  where  he  passed  the  night,  —  what  if  it  had 
been  told  him,  —  "that  on  the  19th  of  April,  seventy- 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  369 

six  years  from  this  day,  will  your  City  of  Boston 
land  a  poor  youth  at  Savannah,  having  violated  her 
own  laws,  and  stained  her  Magistrates'  hands,  in 
order  to  put  an  innocent  man  in  a  Slave-master's 
jail?"  What  if  it  had  been  told  him  that  Ellen 
Craft  must  fly  out  of  Democratic  Boston,  to  Mon- 
archic, Theocratic,  Aristocratic  England,  to  find 
shelter  for  her  limbs,  her  connubial  innocence,  and 
the  virtue  of  her  woman's  heart  ?  I  think  Samuel 
would  have  cursed  the  day  in  which  it  was  said  a 
man-child  was  born,  and  America  was  free !  What 
if  it  had  been  told  May  hew  and  Belknap,  that  in  the 
pulpits  of  Boston,  to  defend  kidnapping  should  be 
counted  to  a  man  as  righteousness  ?  They  could 
not  have  believed  it.  They  did  not  know  what  base- 
ness could  suck  the  Northern  breast,  and  still  be 
base. 

Who  is  to  blame  ?  The  South  ?  Well,  look  and 
see!  In  the  House  of  Representatives  there  are 
eighty-eight  Southern  men ;  there  are  one  hundred 
and  forty-four  from  the  North.  In  the  Senate,  the 
South  has  thirty,  the  North  thirty-two.  But  out  of 
the  two  and  thirty  Northern  Senators,  not  twelve 
men  can  be  found  to  protest  against  this  wicked 
Bill.  The  President  is  a  Northern  man ;  the  Cabi- 
net has  a  majority  from  the  North ;  the  Committee 
of  Senators  who  reported  this  Bill  has  a  majority  of 
Northern  men ;  its  Chairman  is  a  Northern  man. 

The  very  men  who  enacted  the  Fugitive   Slave 


370  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Law  turn  pale ;  but  what  do  they  do  ?  They  do 
nothing!  Where  is  the  North?  Where  has  it  been 
these  fifty  years  back  —  at  the  feet  of  the  South. 
Where  are  the  Northern  ideas — where  is  the  North- 
ern conscience,  the  Northern  right  I  O,  tell  me, 
where  ?  Is  it  in  your  Legislature  ?  Listen  !  See 
if  you  can  hear  any  faint  breathings  of  the  great 
Northern  heart,  that  fought  the  war  of  Independence. 
At  least,  it  is  in  the  Cities.  Listen  I  In  Boston, 
the  "  great  men  "  who  control  Church  and  State  — 
they  have  called  Conventions,  have  they ;  prepared 
resolutions  —  got  them  ready  —  had  preliminary 
meetings  —  have  they?  Nothing  of  it.  There  is 
not  a  mouse  stirring  amongst  them.  It  is  all  right, 
I  suppose,  in  the  little  towns  ?  There  is  the  North- 
ern heart  —  a  great  conscience,  that  says,  "  Give  me 
Liberty  or  give  me  Death  I  "  — "  Resistance  to 
tyrants  is  obedience  to  God!"  Listen  to  Massa- 
chusetts !  Can  you  hear  any  thing  ?  Well,  I  am  a 
Minister.  It  is  in  the  pulpits  of  the  North,  perhaps. 
Hark !  The  Bible  rustles,  as  that  Southern  wind, 
heavy  with  Slavery,  turns  over  its  leaves  rich  in 
benedictions;  and  I  hear  the  old  breath  come  up 
again  —  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" 
— "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  one  of 
the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  not  done 
it  unto  me."  Is  that  the  voice  of  the  pulpit?  O, 
no !  That  is  the  voice  of  a  Hebrew  peasant ;  a  poor 
woman's  son.     In  his  own  time,  they  said  "  He  hath 


THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  371 

a  devil."  They  hung  him  as  a  "blasphemer,"  an 
"infidel."  That  is  not  the  Pulpit's  voice.  Listen 
again.  Here  it  is :  "I  would  send  back  my  own 
mother."  That  is  the  answer  of  the  American  Pul- 
pit. Eight  and  twenty  thousand  Protestant  Minis- 
ters !  The  foremost  sect  of  them  all  debated,  a  little 
while  ago,  whether  it  should  have  a  Litany,  and  on 
what  terms  it  should  admit  young  men  to  the  com- 
munion table  —  allow  them  to  drink  "grocers'  wine," 
and  eat  "  bakers'  bread,"  on  the  "  Lord's  day,"  in  the 
"  Lord's  house ; "  and  never  dared  to  lift  that  palsied 
hand,  in  which  was  once  the  fire  and  blood  of  Chan- 
ning,  against  the  world's  mightiest  sin.  Eight  and 
twenty  thousand  Protestant  ministers,  and  not  a  sect 
that  is  opposed  to  Slavery  I  O,  the  Church  I  the 
Church  of  America !  False  to  the  great  prophets  of 
the  Old  Testament,  the  great  world's  Prophet  of  the 
New ;  false  to  the  fathers  whose  bloody  knees  once 
kissed  the  Rock  of  Plymouth  ! 

The  Northern  conscience,  the  Northern  religion, 
the  Northern  faith  in  God  —  where  is  it?  Is  it  in 
the  midst  of  the  people  —  the  young  men  and  the 
young  women ;  in  your  hearts  and  in  my  heart  ? 
Let  us  see.  Let  our  actions  speak.  Now  is  the 
time  ;  a  month  hence  may  be  too  late  ;  aye,  a  week, 
and  the  deed  may  be  done.  Let  us,  at  least,  be 
manly,  and  do  our  part. 

Well  let  us  contend  bravely  against  this  wicked 
device  of  men  who  are  the  enemies  alike  of  America 


372  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

and  Mankind.  I  call  on  all  men  who  love  man  and 
love  God,  to  oppose  this  extension  of  Slavery.  Talk 
against  it,  preach  against  it,  print  against  it  —  by  all 
means,  act  against  it.  Call  meetings  of  the  Towns 
to  oppose  it,  of  the  Congressional  districts,  of  the 
State,  yea,  of  all  the  Free  States.  Make  a  fire  in 
the  rear  of  your  timid  servants  in  Congress.  Let  us 
fight  manfully,  contesting  the  ground  inch  by  inch, 
till  at  last  we  are  driven  back  to  the  Rock  of  Ply- 
mouth. There  let  us  gather  up  the  wreck  of  the 
Old  Ship  which  brought  over  the  three  churches  of 
Plymouth,  Salem,  Boston,  —  whose  children  have  so 
often  proved  false,  —  therewith  let  us  build  anew  our 
Mayflower,  make  Plymouth  our  Delft-haven,  launch 
again  upon  the  sea,  sailing  to  Greenland  or  to  Africa, 
by  prayer  to  lay  other  deep  foundations,  and  in  the 
wilderness  to  build  up  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God. 

But  we  shall  not  toil  in  vain.  Slavery  is  nothing. 
It  exists  only  by  a  whim.  Theocracy  is  nothing. 
Monarchy  is  nothing.  Aristocracy  nothing.  America 
has  no  "Pope,"  no  "King,"  no"N6ble;"  a  breath 
unmakes  them  as  a  breath  once  made.  Slavery  is  no 
more  if  we  say  it ;  the  monster  dies.  In  one  day  the 
North  could  annihilate  all  the  Slavery  which  depends 
on  the  Federal  Government  —  abolish  it  on  the  Fed- 
eral soil,  the  Capital^  and  the  Territories  ;  abolish  the 
American  Slave- Trade,  declare  it  piracy,  or  other 
felony.     That  would  be  only  common  legislation. 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  373 

The  next  day  we  could  abolish  it  in  the  Slave  States. 
That  would  be  Revolution. 

America  has  one  great  enemy —  Slavery,  our 
deadliest  foe.  Do  you  believe  it  is  always  to  last  ? 
I  tell  you  no !  O,  young  America !  are  you  sure 
there  is  no  law  higher  than  love  of  money  and 
power  ?  sure  there  is  no  Justice  ?  no  God  ?  Quite 
sure  of  that  ?  Men  have  sometimes  been  mistaken 
who  reckoned  without  that  Host. 

Political  economy  is  against  Slavery ;  it  is  a  poor 
tool  to  work  with.  Compare  Kentucky  and  Ohio^ 
Virginia  with  Pennsylvania  and  New  York!  Do 
you  believe  that  shifty  Americans  will  always  use 
the  poor,  rude  instrument  of  the  savage  !  They  love 
riches  too  well.  How  weak  Slavery  makes  a  nation ! 
In  time  of  war  how  easy  it  would  be  for  the  enemy 
to  raise  up  the  385,000  Slaves  of  South  Carolina 
against  the  283,000  whites !  Where  would  then  be 
the  "  chivalry  "  of  that  medisBval  State  ? 

Slavery  hinders  the  education  and  the  industry  of 
the  people  ;  it  is  fatal  to  their  piety.  Think  of  a 
religious  kidnapper!  a  Christian  Slave-breeder!  a 
Slave-trader  loving  his  neighbor  as  himself,  receiving 
the  "  sacraments "  in  some  Protestant  Church  from 
the  hand  of  a  Christian  Apostle,  then  the  next  day 
selling  babies  by  the  dozen,  and  tearing  young 
women  from  the  arms  of  their  husbands,  to  feed  the 
lust  of  lecherous  New  Orleans !  Imagine  a  religious 
man  selling  his  own  children  into  eternal  bondage  I 

VOL.  I.  32 


374  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

Think  of  a  Christian  defending  slavery  out  of  the 
Bible,  and  declaring  there  is  no  Higher  Law,  but 
Atheism  is  the  first  principle  of  Republican  govern- 
ment! 

"Slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies;"  what  can 
save  it  ?  Things  refuse  to  be  mismanaged  for  ever. 
All  the  world  is  against  us.  It  is  only  in  America 
that  Slave-trading,  Slave-breeding  is  thought  Chris- 
tian and  Democratic.  Mr.  Slatter,  who  had  become 
rich  by  trading  in  the  souls  of  men,  and  famous  for 
preserving  the  Union,  in  his  Slave-pen  at  the  Capital 
of  the  Christian  Republic,  once  entertained  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  at  his  costly  house  in  Bal- 
timore ;  —  I  forget  whether  it  was  Southern  Mr. 
Polk,  or  Northern  Mr.  Fillmore ;  Slavery  has  thrown 
down  the  partition  wall  between  Whig  and  Demo- 
crat. What  European  Despot  would  have  eaten 
salt  with  a  man  whose  business  was  to  sell  misery 
by  the  wholesale,  and  to  retail  the  agony  of  women  ? 
Even  the  medieeval  Pope,  the  slave  of  stronger  des- 
pots, who  appropriately  sends  us  his  red-handed 
Bedini,  to  be  lauded  by  aspirants  for  the  Presidency 
—  would  shrink  from  this.  No  Russian  despot  has 
his  sons  as  slaves  to  wait  on  him  at  table.  You 
must  come  to  America  to  find  a  Cossack  President 
who  could  boast  that  honor !  Do  you  believe  this 
wickedness  is  always  to  continue  ?  Can  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  become  Spanish  ?  New  England  like  Bolivia, 
Peru,  Laguna.  Mexico  ?     The  wheels  of  time  turn 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  375 

not  back.  We  cannot  break  the  continuity  of  human 
history.  See  how  mankind  marches  towards  freedom, 
each  step  a  Revolution.  See  what  has  been  done  in 
four  hundred  years,  for  the  freedom  of  man  in  Italy, 
France,  Germany,  Switzerland,  Holland,  or  even  in 
Spain!  Lay  down  your  ear  to  the  great  deep  of 
Humanity,  and  hearken  to  the  ground-swell  which 
goes  on  therein.  That  roar  of  mighty  waters,  does  it 
whisper  security  to  the  tyrant  ?  The  next  four  hun- 
dred years  what  shall  it  do  against  Theocracy,  Mon- 
archy, Aristocracy,  Despotocracy  ? 

See  what  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  Europe  has  done 
for  freedom  since  the  first  James !  Compare  the 
England  of  1854,  with  the  England  of  1604.  What 
a  growth  of  liberal  institutions ;  of  freedom  in  the 
people  I  England  loving  liberty,  loving  law,  goes 
on  still  building  up  the  Cyclopsean  walls  of  Human- 
ity, the  Bulwark  of  Freedom  for  mankind.  See 
what  the  same  Anglo-Saxon  has  done  in  America. 
Compare  the  Colonies  of  1754,  with  the  States  of 
1854.     What  a  progress !     Are  we  to  stop  here  ? 

See  what  Massachusetts  has  done.  Slavery  was 
always  a  contradiction  in  the  consciousness  of  New- 
England.  So  in  1641,  Massachusetts  enacted  that 
"  there  shall  never  be  any  bond  Slavery,  villanage,  or 
captivity  amongst  us,  unless  it  be  lawful  captives 
taken  in  just  wars,"  etc.  In  1646,  the  Colony  bore 
"  witness  against  the  heinous  and  crying  sin  of  man- 
stealing,"    and  restored  to    Guinea   some   captives 


376  THE    NEBRASKA  QUESTION. 

wickedly  taken  thence.  But  yet  Slavery  existed,  and 
cruel  laws  afflicted  its  victims.  Listen  to  the  follow- 
ing. In  1636,  "  it  is  ordered  that  no  servant  shall  be 
set  free  —  until  he  have  served  out  the  time  cove- 
nanted : "  that  "  when  any  servants  shall  run  away 
from  their  masters  ....  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
next  magistrate,  or  the  constable  and  two  of  the 
chief  inhabitants  where  no  magistrate  is,  to  press 
men  and  boats  or  pinnaces  at  the  public  charge,  to 
pursue  such  persons  by  sea  or  land,  and  bring  them 
back  by  force  of  arms."  In  1703,  a  law  forbade 
negi'o,  mulatto,  or  Indian  servants  or  Slaves  "  to  be 
found  abroad  in  the  night  time  after  nine  o'clock." 
They  were  "  to  be  openly  whipped  by  the  constable." 
If  a  negro  or  mulatto  should  strike  any  person  of 
the  English,  —  he  was  to  be  "  severely  whipped  at 
the  discretion  of  the  Justices."  In  1705,  a  duty  of 
four  pounds  was  levied  on  each  Slave  imported,  and 
a  drawback  allowed  in  case  he  was  "  exported  with- 
in the  space  of  twelve  months."  Marriage  between 
white  and  black  was  illegal ;  a  fine  of  fifty  pounds 
punished  the  officer  who  joined  the  parties.  It  is 
not  a  hundred  years  since  Slaves  were  sold  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, children  were  torn  fi-om  their  parents. 
The  charms  of  young  women  were  advertised  in  the 
public  print.  In  less  than  a  hundred  years,  two 
Slaves  were  burned  alive  on  Boston  Neck  for  poison- 
ing their  master.  Now  Massachusetts  has  torn  these 
wicked  laws  from  her  Statute-book.     It  is  only  Bos- 


THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  377- 

ton  which  turns  a  black  boy  out  of  her  Public  School. 
Do  you  think  the   Northern  men  love   Slavery,  the 
people  love  it?     In  all  the  parties  there  are  noble 
men  who  hate  American  Slavery.     They  know  it  is 
a  wicked  thing ;  they  despise  their  politicians  who 
seek    to   perpetuate    it,    and   loathe   the   purchased 
Priests  who  justify  the  iniquity  in  the  name  of  God! 
Each  of  the  nine  sacrifices  to  Slavery  has  been  un- 
popular at  the  North.    Only  the  politicians  approved 
them.    The  Constitution  was  adopted  with  difficulty. 
New  England  hated  its  inauguration  of  Slavery  as 
a  power  in  the  Republic.     The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill 
of  1793  —  why,  even  Washington  did  not  venture  to 
pursue  his  Slave  by  its  authority  and  seize  her.    She 
was  safe  even  in  the  native  State  of  Webster  and  of 
Pierce !      The   Mexican   War   was   unpopular.      It 
was  not  "  with  alacrity  "  that  the  North  obeyed  the 
wicked  act  of  1850.     Boston  saw  her  saddest  day 
when  she  kidnapped  Thomas  Sims.    It  could  not  be 
done  but  with  chains  round  the  Court  House,  Judges 
crawling  under,  and  a  regiment  of  flunkeys  billeted 
in  Faneuil  Hall.     If  the  question  of  the  enslavement 
of  Nebraska  were  this  day  put  to  the  vote   of  the 
people,  in  nineteen  twentieths  of  all  the  towns  of  the 
North,  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  voters  would  say 
No.     The  people  are  right,  though,  alas,  not  very 
earnest.     There  are  a  few  politicians,  also,  who  hate 
Slavery.     There  are  noble  ministers  of  all  sects  save 
the  Catholic,  true  to  their  high  calling,  honoring  the 

32* 


378  THE    NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

great  Philanthropist  they  worship,  who  hate  Ameri- 
can Slavery,  and  preach  against  it  in  spite  of  the 
Pharisee,  the  Sadducee,  and  the  Hypocrite,  who 
thereupon  tighten  against  the  minister  the  strings  of 
the  Parish  purse.  I  have  no  words  to  teU  how  much 
I  honor  such  men !  True  ministers  of  Christ,  they 
put  the  churches  of  commerce  to  continual  shame. 
I  never  knew  of  a  Catholic  Priest  who  favored  free- 
dom in  America ;  a  Slave  himself,  the  mediseval  the- 
ocracy eats  the  heart  out  from  the  celibate  Monk! 

Slavery  is  one  great  enemy  of  America,  but  there 
is  one  other  foe  —  corrupt  politicians  fillibustering  for 
the  Presidency,  defending  Slavery  out  of  the  New 
Testament,  volunteering  to  shoulder  their  musket 
and  shoot  down  men  claiming  their  unalienable 
rights ;  politicians  who  deny  God's  Higher  Law, 
who  call  upon  us  to  conquer  our  prejudices  against 
wickedness,  inaugurating  Atheism  as  the  first  princi- 
ple of  Government.  In  1788,  they  put  Slavery  into 
the  Constitution ;  in  1850,  they  enacted  iniquity  into 
Law ;  and  in  1854,  they  are  about  their  old  work 
*'  saving  the  Union."  Shall  such  men  always  pre- 
vail !  the  mediaeval  Catholic  against  the  free  minister 
of  piety !  The  corrupt  politician  fillibustering  for 
office  against  the  people  —  the  American  idea  in 
their  heads,  and  Humanity  in  their  hearts !  Even 
the  Catholic  shall  learn. 

Slavery  must  die.     See  how  Monarchy  withdrew 
in  front  of  White  Hall  in  1648 !     How  Slavery  dis- 


THE  NEBRASKA   QUESTION.  379 

appeared  from  Saint  Domingo  in  1790 !  Shall 
American  Slavery  end  after  that  sort,  or  as  it  ended 
in  New  England ;  as  Old  England  put  it  down  in 
Jamaica  ?  Down  it  must.  God  does  not  forget. 
His  Justice  is  wrought  into  the  world's  great  heart. 
See  what  changes  perplex  the  monarchs  of  the  world 
—  with  what  strides  Mankind  goes  forward !  The 
fourth  tyrant  must  follow  to  the  same  tomb  with  the 
rest.     It  is  for  you  and  me  to  slay  him ! 

Half  a  million  immigrants  annually  find  a  shelter 
on  our  shores.  "  Westward  the  star  of  empire  takes 
way."  Aye,  it  will  come  Eastward  —  and  Asia 
already  begins  to  send  us  her  children.  What  a 
noble  destination  is  before  us  if  we  are  but  faithful. 
Shall  politicians  come  between  the  people  and  the 
eternal  Right  —  between  America  and  her  history! 
When  you  remember  what  our  fathers  have  done ; 
what  we  have  done  —  substituted  a  new  industrial 
for  a  military  state,  the  self-rule  of  this  day  for  the 
vicarious  government  of  the  middle  ages ;  when  you 
remember  what  a  momentum  the  human  race  has 
got  during  its  long  run  —  it  is  plain  that  Slavery  is 
on  the  way  to  end. 

As  soon  as  the  North  awakes  to  its  ideas,  and  uses 
its  vast  strength  of  money,  its  vast  strength  of  num- 
bers, and  its  still  more  gigantic  strength  of  educated 
intellect,  we  shall  tread  this  monster  underneath  our 
feet.     See  how   Spain   has  fallen  —  how  poor  and 


380  THE   NEBRASKA   QUESTION. 

miserable  is  Spanish  America.  She  stands  there  a 
perpetual  warning  to  us.  One  day  the  North  will 
rise  in  her  majesty,  and  put  Slavery  under  our  feet, 
and  then  we  shall  extend  the  area  of  freedom.  The 
blessing  of  Almighty  God  will  come  down  upon  the 
noblest  people  the  world  ever  saw  —  who  have  tri- 
umphed over  Theocracy,  Monarchy,  Aristocracy, 
Despotocracy,  and  have  got  a  Democracy  —  a  gov- 
ernment of  all,  for  all,  and  by  all  —  a  Church  with- 
out a  Bishop,  a  State  without  a  King,  a  Community 
without  a  Lord,  and  a  Family  without  a  Slave. 


AN  ADDRESS 


CONDITION  OF  AMERICA, 


BEFORE    THE 


NEW  YORK  CITY  ANTI-SLAVERY  SOCIETY, 


FIEST    ANNIVERSARY, 


HELD     AT     THE     BROADWAY    TABERNACLE, 


MAY    12,   1854. 


ADDRESS. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : —  I  shall  ask  your  atten- 
tion, this  evening,  to  some  few  thoughts  on  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  the  United  States  in  respect  to 
Slavery.  After  all  that  has  been  said  by  wise, 
powerful,  and  eloquent  men  in  this  city,  this  week, 
perhaps  I  shall  have  scarce  any  thing  to  present  that 
is  new. 

As  you  look  on  the  general  aspect  of  America  to- 
day, its  main  features  are  not  less  than  sublime, 
while  they  are  likewise  beautiful  exceedingly.  The 
full  breadth  of  the  continent  is  ours,  from  sea  to  sea, 
from  the  great  lakes  to  the  great  gulf.  There  are 
three  million  square  miles,  with  every  variety  of  cli- 
mate, and  soil,  and  mineral ;  great  rivers,  a  static 
force,  inclined  planes  for  travel  reaching  from  New 
Orleans  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  from  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Chicago ;  smaller  rivers,  a 
dynamic  force,  turning  the  many  thousand  mills  of 


384  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

the  industrious  North.  There  is  a  coast  most  richly 
indented,  to  aid  the  spread  of  civilization.  The 
United  States  has  more  than  twelve  thousand  miles 
of  shore  line  on  the  continent ;  more  than  nine  thou- 
sand on  its  islands  ;  more  than  twenty-four  thousand 
miles  of  river  navigation.  Here  is  the  Material 
Groundwork  for  a  great  State  —  not  an  empire, 
but  a  Commonwealth.  The  world  has  not  such 
another. 

There  are  twenty-four  millions  of  men ;  fifteen  and 
a  half  millions  with  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  their 
veins  —  strong,  real  Anglo-Saxon  blood ;  eight  mill- 
ions and  a  half  more  of  other  families  and  races,  just 
enough  to  temper  the  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  to  furnish 
a  new  composite  tribe,  far  better,  I  trust,  than  the 
old.  What  a  Human  Basis  for  a  State  to  be  erected 
on  this  material  groundwork! 

On  the  Eastern  Slopes  of  the  continent,  where  the 
high  lands  which  reach  from  the  Katahdin  moun- 
tains in  Maine  to  the  end  of  the  Appalachians  in 
Georgia  —  on  the  Atlantic  slopes,  where  the  land 
pitches  down  to  the  sea  from  the  48th  to  the  28th 
parallel,  there  are  fifteen  States,  a  million  square 
miles,  communicating  with  the  ocean.  In  the  South, 
rivers  bear  to  the  sea  rice,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  the 
products  of  half-tropic  agriculture ;  in  the  North, 
smaller  streams  toil  all  day,  and  sometimes  all  night, 
working  wood,  iron,  cotton,  and  wool  into  forms  of 
use  and  beauty,  while  iron  roads  carry  to  the  sea  the 


CONDITION    OF    AMERICA.  385 

productions  of  temperate  agriculture,  mining,  and 
manufactures. 

On  the  Western  slope,  where  the  rivers  flow  down 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  49th  to  the  32d  paral- 
lel, is  a  great  country,  almost  eight  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  in  extent.  There,  too,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
has  gone ;  in  the  south,  the  gold-hunter  gathers  the 
precious  metals,  while  the  farmer,  the  miner,  and  the 
woodman  collect  far  more  precious  products  in  the 
north. 

In  the  Great  Basin  between  the  Cordilleras  of  the 
West  and  the  AUeghanies,  where  the  Mississippi 
drains  half  the  continent  to  the  Mediterranean  of  the 
New  World,  there  also  the  Anglo-Saxon  has  occu- 
pied the  ground —  twelve  hundred  thousand  square 
miles ;  in  the  south  to  rear  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar ; 
in  the  north  to  raise  cattle  and  cereal  grasses,  for 
beast  and  for  man. 

What  a  spectacle  it  is  I  A  nation  not  eighty 
years  old,  still  in  its  cradle,  and  yet  grown  so 
great.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  there  was 
not  an  Anglo-Saxon  on  all  this  continent.  Now 
there  is  an  Anglo-Saxon  commonwealth  twenty-four 
millions  strong.  Rich  as  it  is  in  numbers,  there  are 
not  yet  eight  men  to  the  square  mile. 

All  this  is  a  Republic ;  it  is  a  Democracy.  There 
is  no  born  priest  to  stand  betwixt  the  nation  and  its 
God ;  no  Pope  to  entail  his  "  nephews "  on  the 
Church ;  no  bishop  claiming  divine  right  to  rule  over 

VOL.  I.  33 


386  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

the  people  and  stand  betwixt  them  and  the  Infinite. 
There  is  no  king,  no  born  king,  to  ride  on  the 
nation's  neck.  There  are  noble-men,  but  none 
Noble-born  to  usurp  the  land,  to  monopolize  the 
government  and  keep  the  community  from  the  bosom 
of  the  earth.  The  people  is  Priest  and  makes  its 
own  religion  out  of  God's  revelation  in  man's  nature 
and  history.  The  people  is  its  own  King  to  rule 
itself;  its  own  Noble  to  occupy  the  earth.  The 
people  make  the  laws  and  choose  their  own  magis- 
trates. Industry  is  free ;  travel  is  free ;  religion  is 
free ;  speech  is  free ;  there  are  no  shackles  on  the 
press.  The  nation  rests  on  industry,  not  on  war. 
It  is  formed  of  agriculturists,  traders,  sailors,  miners 
—  not  a  nation  of  soldiers.  The  army  numbers  ten 
thousand  —  one  soldier  for  every  twenty-four  thou- 
sand men.  The  people  are  at  peace ;  no  nation 
invades  us.  The  government  is  firmly  fixed  and 
popular.  A  nation  loving  liberty,  loves  likewise 
law ;  and  when  it  sets  a  plant  of  liberty,  it  fences  it 
all  round  with  law  as  high  up  as  the  hands  can  reach. 
We  annually  welcome  four  hundred  thousand  im- 
migrants who  flee  from  the  despotism  of  the  Old 
World. 

The  country  is  rich  —  after  England,  the  richest 
on  earth  in  cultivated  lands,  roads,  houses,  mills. 
Four  million  tons  of  shipping  sail  under  the  Ameri- 
can flag.  This  year  we  shall  build  half  a  million 
tons  more,  which,  at  forty  dollars  a  ton,  is  worth 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  387 

twenty  millions  of  dollars.  That  is  the  ship  crop. 
Then,  the  corn  crop  is  seven  Imndred  millions  of 
bushels  of  Indian  corn.  What  a  harvest  of  coal, 
copper,  iron,  lead,  of  wheat,  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  is 
produced  I 

Over  all  and  above  all  these  there  rises  the  great 
American  Political  Idea,  a  "  self-evident  truth  "  — 
which  cannot  be  proved  —  it  needs  no  proof;  it  is 
anterior  to  demonstration  ;  namely,  that  every  man 
is  endowed  by  his  Creator  with  certain  unalienable 
rights,  and  in  these  rights  all  men  are  equal ;  and  on 
these  the  government  is  to  rest,  deriving  its  sole 
sanction  from  the  governed's  consent. 

Higher  yet  above  this  material  groundwork,  this 
human  foundation,  this  accumulation  of  numbers,  of 
riches,  of  industry  —  as  the  cross  on  the  top  of  a 
tall,  wide  dome,  whose  lantern  is  the  great  American 
political  idea  —  as  the  cross  that  surmounts  it  rises 
the  American  Religious  Idea — one  God;  Chris- 
tianity the  true  religion ;  and  the  worship  of  God 
by  Love ;  inwardly  it  is  Piety,  love  to  God,  —  out- 
wardly love  to  man  —  morality,  benevolence,  philan- 
thropy. 

What  a  spectacle  to  the  eyes  of  the  Scandinavian, 
the  German,  the  Dutchman,  the  Irishman,  as  they 
view  America  from  afar !  What  a  contrast  it  seems 
to  Europe.  There  liberty  is  ideal ;  it  is  a  dream ; 
here  it  is  organic,  an  institution ;  one  of  the  Estab- 
lishments of  the  land. 


388  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

That,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  aspect  which 
America  presents  to  the  oppressed  victims  of  Euro- 
pean despotism  in  Church  and  in  State.  Far  off  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  among  the  Apennines, 
on  the  plains  of  Germany,  and  in  the  Sclavonian 
lands,  I  have  met  men  to  whom  America  seemed 
as  this  fair-proportioned  edifice  that  I  have  thus 
sketched  out  before  your  eyes.  But  when  they 
come  nearer,  behold  half  the  land  is  black  with 
Slavery.  In  1850,  out  of  more  than  two  hundred 
and  forty  hundred  thousand  Americans,  thirty- 
two  hundred  thousand  were  slaves  —  more  than 
an  eighth  of  the  population  counted  as  cattle ;  not 
as  citizens  at  all.  They  are  only  human  material, 
not  yet  WTOught  into  citizens :  —  nay,  not  counted 
human.  They  are  cattle,  property;  not  counted 
men,  but  animals  and  no  more.  Manhood  must 
not  be  extended  to  them.  Listen  while  I  read  to 
you  from  a  Southern  print.  It  was  recommended 
by  the  Governor  of  Alabama  that  the  Legislature 
should  pass  a  law  prohibiting  the  separation  of  fam- 
ilies ;  whereupon  the  Richmond  Enquirer  discourses 
thus :  "  This  recommendation  strikes  us  as  being 
most  unwise  and  impolitic.  If  slaves  are  property, 
then  should  they  be  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the 
master,  or  be  subject  only  to  such  legal  provisions  as 
are  designed  for  the  protection  of  life  and  limb.  If 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave  be  infringed  for  one 
purpose,  it  would  be  difficult  to  fix  any  limit  to  the 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  389 

encroachment."     They  are  property,   no  more,   and 
must  be  treated  as  such,  and  not  as  men. 

Slavery  is  on  the  Atlantic  slopes  of  the  con- 
tinent. There  are  one  million  six  hundred  thou- 
sand slaves  between  the  Alleghany  range  and  the 
Atlantic  coast.  Slavery  is  in  the  central  basin. 
There  are  a  million  and  a  half  of  slaves  on  the  land 
drained  by  the  Mississippi.  Spite  of  law  and  con- 
stitution, Slavery  has  gone  to  the  Pacific  slopes, 
travelling  with  the  gold-hunter  into  California.  The 
State  whose  capital  county  "in  three  years  com- 
mitted over  twelve  hundred  murders  "  has  very  ap- 
propriately legalized  Slavery  for  a  limited  time.  I 
suppose  it  is  only  preliminary  to  legalizing  it  for  a 
time  limited  only  by  the  Eternal  God.  In  the  very 
capital  of  the  Christian  Democracy  there  are  four 
thousand  purchased  men.  In  the  Senate-house,  a 
few  years  ago,  a  Mississippi  Senator  belched  out  his 
imprecations  against  that  one  New  Hampshire  Sen- 
ator who  has  never  yet  been  found  false  to  humanity. 
Mr.  Foote  was  a  freeman,  a  citizen,  and  a  "  demo- 
crat "  ;  and  while,  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  he  was 
threatening  to  hang  John  P.  Hale  on  the  tallest  pine 
tree  in  Mississippi,  there  toiled  in  a  stable,  whose 
loft  he  slept  in  by  night,  one  of  that  Senators  own 
brothers.  The  son  of  Mr.  Foote's  father  was  a  slave 
in  the  capital  of  the  United  States,  while  his  half- 
brother  —  by  the  father's  side  —  threatened  to  hang 
on  the  tallest  pine  in  Mississippi  the  only  Senator 
33* 


390  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

that  New  Hampshire  sent  to  Washington  who  dared 
be  true  to  truth  and  free  for  freedom. 

But  a  few  years  ago,  JNIr.  Hope  H.  Slatter  had  his 
negro  market  in  the  capital  of  the  United  States  ; 
one  of  the  greatest  slave-dealers  in  America.  He 
was  a  member  also,  it  is  said,  of  a  "  Christian 
church."  The  slave-pen  is  a  singular  institution  for 
a  democratic  metropolis,  and  the  slave-trader  a  pecu- 
liar ornament  for  the  Christian  church  in  the  capital 
of  a  democracy.  He  grew  rich,  went  to  Baltimore, 
had  a  fine  house,  and  once  entertained  a  "  President 
of  the  United  States  "  in  his  mansion.  The  slave- 
trader  and  the  democratic  President  met  together  — 
Slatter  and  Polk  I  fit  guest  and  fitting  host ! 

In  all  the  three  million  square  miles  of  American 
land  there  is  no  inch  of  free  soil,  from  the  St.  Johns 
to  the  Rio  Gila,  from  Madawasca  to  San  Diego. 
The  star-spangled  banner  floats  from  Vancouver's 
Island  by  Nootka  Sound  to  Key  West  on  the  south 
of  Florida,  and  all  the  way  the  flag  of  om'  Union  is 
the  standard  of  Slavery.  In  all  the  soil  that  our 
fathers  fought  to  make  free  from  English  tyr- 
anny, there  is  not  an  inch  where  the  black  man 
is  free,  save  the  five  thousand  miles  which  Daniel 
Webster  surrendered  to  Lord  Ashburton  by 
the  treaty  of  1842.  The  symbol  of  the  Union 
is  a  fetter.  The  President  should  be  sworn  on  the 
auction-block  of  a  slave-trader.  The  New  Hampshire 
President,  in  his  Inaugural,  declared,  publicly,  his 


CONDITION    OP   AMERICA.  391 

allegiance  to  the  slave  power — not  to  the  power  of 
northern  mechanics,  free  farmers,  free  manufactm*ers, 
free  men  ;  but  allegiance  to  the  slave  power ;  he 
swears  special  protection  to  no  property  but  "  prop- 
erty "  in  slaves ;  specific  allegiance  to  no  law  but  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  devotion  to  no  right  but  the 
slaveholder's  "  right  "  to  his  property  in  man. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  a  slave 
court;  a  majority  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  the  same.  It  has  been  so  this  forty 
years.  The  majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
are  obedient  to  the  lords  of  the  lash  ;  a  majority  of 
Northern  politicians,  especially  of  that  denomination 
which  is  called  "  dough-faces,"  are  only  overseers  for 
the  owner  of  the  slave.  Mr.  Douglas  is  a  great  over- 
seer ;  Mr.  Everett  is  a  little  overseer. 

The  nation  offers  a  homestead  out  of  its  public 
land ;  it  is  only  to  the  white  man.  What  would  you 
say  if  the  Emperor  of  Russia  offered  land  only  to 
nobles  ;  the  Pope  only  to  priests ;  Queen  Victoria 
only  to  lords  ?  Each  male  settler  in  Utah,  it  seems, 
is  to  have  four  hundred  and  eighty  acres  of  land,  if 
he  is  not  married,  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  more,  I 
believe,  according  to  one  proposition,  for  every  wife 
that  he  has  got.  But  if  he  have  the  complexion  of 
the  only  children  that  Madison  left  behind  him,  he 
can  have  no  land  at  all. 

Even  a  Boston  school-house  is  shut  against  the 


392  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

black  man's  children.  The  arm  of  the  city  govern- 
ment slams  the  door  in  every  colored  boy's  face.  His 
father  helps  pay  for  the  public  school ;  the  son  and 
daughter  must  not  come  in. 

In  the  slave  States,  it  is  a  crime  to  teach  the  slave 
to  read  and  write.  Out  of  four  millions  of  children 
of  America  at  school  in  1850,  there  were  twenty-six 
thousand  that  were  colored.  There  were  more  than 
four  hundred  thousand  free  colored  persons,  and 
there  were  more  than  two  hundred  and  fourteen 
thousand  thereof  under  the  age  of  twenty  ;  of  these, 
there  were  at  school  only  twenty-six  thousand  —  one 
child  in  nine  !  Out  of  three  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
slaves,  there  was  not  one  at  school.  It  is  a  crime  by 
the  statute  in  every  slave  State  to  teach  a  slave  to 
spell  "  God."  He  may  be  a  Christian  ;  he  must  not 
write  "  Christ."  He  must  worship  the  Bible ;  he 
must  not  read  it  I  It  is  a  crime  even  in  a  Sunday 
school  to  teach  a  child  the  great  letters  which  spell 
out  "  Holy  Bible."  I  knew  a  minister,  he  was  a 
Connecticut  man,  too,  who  went  oif  from  New  Or- 
leans because  he  did  not  dare  to  stay ;  and  he  did 
not  dare  to  stay  because  he  tried  to  teach  the  slave 
to  read  in  his  Sunday  school.  He  went  back  to 
Connecticut,  whence  he  will,  perhaps,  go  as  mission- 
ary to  China  or  Turkey,  and  find  none  to  hinder  his 
Christian  work. 

At  the  North,  the  black  man  is  shut  out  of  the 


CONDITION   OP   AMERICA.  393 

meeting-house.  In  Heaven,  according  to  the  the- 
ology of  America,  he  may  sit  down  with  the  just 
made  perfect,  his  sins  washed  white  "  in  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb ; "  but  when  he  comes  to  a  certain 
Baptist  church  in  Boston,  he  cannot  own  a  pew. 
And  there  are  few  churches  where  he  can  sit  in  a 
pew.  The  rich  and  the  poor  are  there ;  the  one 
Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them  all ;  but  the  Church 
thinks  He  did  not  make  the  black  as  well  as  the 
white.  Nay ;  he  is  turned  out  of  the  omnibus,  out 
of  the  burial-ground.  There  is  a  burial-ground  in 
this  State,  and  in  the  deed  which  conveys  the  land  it 
is  stipulated  that  "  no  colored  person  or  convict " 
can  ever  be  buried  there.  He  is  turned  out  of  the 
graveyard,  where  the  great  mother  of  our  bodies 
gathers  our  dust  when  the  sods  of  the  valley  are 
sweet  to  the  soul.  Nowhere  but  in  the  jail  and  on 
the  gallows  has  the  black  man  equal  rights  with 
the  white  in  our  American  legislation ! 

The  American  Press  —  it  is  generally  the  foe  of 
the  slave,  the  advocate  of  bondage. 

In  Virginia,  it  is  felony  to  deny  the  master's  right 
to  own  his  slaves.  There  is  an  old  law  reenacted  in 
the  revision  of  the  Virginia  statutes,  which  inflicts  a 
punishment  of  not  more  than  one  year's  confinement 
on  any  one  guilty  of  that  offence.  It  was  proposed 
in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  last  winter,  that  if  a 
man  had  conscientious  objections  to  holding  slaves, 
he  should  not  be  allowed  to  sit  on  any  jury  where 


394  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

the  matter  of  a  man's  freedom  was  in  question. 
Nor  is  that  all.  There  is  a  law  in  Virginia,  it  is 
said,  that  when  a  man  has  three  quarters  white 
blood  in  his  veins,  he  may  recover  his  freedom  in 
virtue  of  that  fact.  It  is  well  known  that  at  least 
half  the  slaves  in  Virginia  are  half  white  and  one 
quarter  of  them  three  quarters  white.  Accordingly, 
it  was  proposed  in  one  of  their  newspapers  that  this 
old  law  should  be  repealed,  and  another  substituted 
providing  that  no  man  should  recover  his  freedom  in 
consequence  of  his  complexion,  unless  he  had  more 
than  nine  tenths  white  blood  in  his  veins. 

The  slave  has  no  rights ;  the  ideas  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  are  repudiated ;  he  is  not  "  en- 
dowed by  his  Creator "  with  "  certain  unalienable 
rights "  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." 

Listen  to  what  a  Southern  editor  says.  I  am 
quoting  now  from  one  of  the  most  powerful  South- 
ern journals,  printed  at  the  capital  of  Virginia,  the 
Richmond  Examiner,  and  the  words  which  I  read 
were  written  by  the  American  Charg^  d 'Affaires  at 
Turin.  He  says :  "  The  foundation  and  right  of 
negro  Slavery  is  in  its  utility  and  the  fitness  of 
things ;  it  is  the  same  right  by  which  we  hold  prop- 
erty in  domestic  animals."  The  negro  is  "  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  human  and  brute  creation." 
"  The  negro  is  not  the  white  man.  Not  with  more 
safety  do  we  assert  that  a  horse  is  not  a  hog.     Hay 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  395 

is  good  for  horses  —  but  not  for  hogs;  liberty  is  good 
for  white  men,  but  not  for  negroes."  "  A  law  ren- 
dering perpetual  the  relation  between  a  negro  and 
his  master  is  no  wrong,  but  a  right." 

Then  in  reply  to  some  writer  in  the  Tribune,  who 
had  asked,  "  Have  they  no  souls,"  he  says,  "  They 
may  have  souls,  for  ought  we  know  to  the  contrary ; 
so  may  horses  and  hogs."  Then,  when  somebody 
quotes  the  Bible  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  men, 
he  answers  :  "  The  Bible  has  been  vouchsafed  to 
mankind  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  us  out  of  hell- 
fire  and  getting  us  into  heaven  by  the  mysteries  of 
faith  and  the  inner  life ;  not  to  teach  us  govern- 
ment, political  economy,"  etc. 

The  American  Church  repudiates  the  Christian 
religion  when  it  comes  to  speak  about  the  African. 
It  does  not  apply  the  golden  rule  to  the  slave.  The 
"servants"  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  Greek 
language,  were  "  slaves,"  and  the  American  Church 
commands  them  to  be  obedient  to  their  masters. 
There  must  be  no  marriage  —  the  affectional  and 
passional  union  of  one  man  and  one  woman  for  life 
—  only  transient  concubinage.  Marriage  is  incon- 
sistent with  Slavery,  and  the  slave  wedlock  in  the 
American  Church  is  not  a  Sacrament.  "  Manifest 
destiny  "  is  the  cry  of  politicians,  and  that  demands 
Slavery :  "  The  will  of  God "  is  the  cry  of  the 
priests,  and  it  demands  the  same  thing.  I  am 
not  speaking  of  ministers  of  Christianity ;  they  are 


396  CONDITION   OF   AMEKICA. 

a  very  different  sort  of  men,  and  preach  a  very  differ- 
ent creed  from  that  —  only  of  the  ministers  in  the 
Churches  of  Commerce.  According  to  the  popu- 
lar theology  of  all  Christendom,  Jesus  Christ  came 
on  earth  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost. 
The  Good  Physician  does  not  go  among  the  whole, 
but  among  the  sick.  If  he  were  to  come  here  to 
seek  to  relieve  the  slave,  the  leading  men  in  the 
American  denominations  would  tell  him  he  came 
before  he  was  called ;  he  ran  before  he  was  sent  — 
that  it  was  no  mission  from  God  to  break  a  single 
American  fetter,  nor  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free.  Is 
not  the  "  Constitution  "  above  "  Conscience,"  and 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  more  holy  than  the  Bible ; 
the  commissioner  of  more  authority  than  Christ  ? 

"  Oh,  Faith  of  Christians,  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair, 
Then  bind  the  palm  thy  sage's  broio  to  suit 
Of  Masted  leaf  and  death-distilling  fruit." 

Such  is  the  aspect  of  America  when  the  immi- 
grant comes  near  and  looks  the  nation  in  the  face. 
What  a  spectacle  that  is  to  put  along-side  of  the 
other !  Europe  repudiates  bondage  —  Scandinavia, 
Holland,  France,  England.  Since  Britain  emanci- 
pated her  slaves,  the  present  Emperor  of  Russia  has 
set  free  over  seven  millions  of  slaves  that  belonged 
to  his  own  private  domain,  and  established  more 
than  four  thousand  schools,  free  for  those  seven 
millions  of  emancipated  slaves ;  and  did  he  not  fear 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  397 

an  outbreak  in  a  country  where  "  revolution  is 
endemic,"  he  would  set  free  the  other  five  and  thirty 
millions  that  occupy  his  soil  to-day.  And  when  he 
enlarges  his  territory,  he  never  extends  the  area  of 
bondage,  only  the  area  of  what  in  Russia  is  freedom. 

What  a  spectacle  !  A  country  reaching  from  sea 
to  sea,  from  the  Gulf  of  tropic  heat  to  Lake  Supe- 
rior's artic  cold,  and  not  an  inch  of  free  soil  all  the 
way !  Three  millions  of  square  miles,  and  not  a 
foot  where  a  fugitive  from  Slavery  can  be  safe !  A 
democracy,  and  every  eighth  man  bought  and  sold ! 

It  is  the  richest  nation  in  the  world,  after  England; 
yet,  we  are  so  poor  that  every  eighth  man  is  unable 
to  say  that  he  owns  the  smallest  finger  on  his  fee- 
blest hand.  So  poor  are  we  amid  our  riches,  that 
every  eighth  woman  is  to  such  an  extent  a  pauper 
that  she  does  not  own  the  baby  she  has  borne ;  nor 
even  the  baby  that  she  bears.  Maternity  is  put 
up  at  public  vendue,  and  the  auctioneer  says,  "  So 
much  for  the  mother  and  so  much  for  the  hopes 
and  expectations  of  another  life  that  is  to  be 
born !  " 

America  calls  herself  "  the  best  educated  nation 
in  the  world,"  and  yet,  in  fifteen  Democratic  States, 
it  is  a  felony  by  statute  to  teach  a  child  to  know  the 
three  letters  which  spell  "  God."  What  a  spectacle 
is  that ! 

Nor  is  this  all ;  but  able  men,  well  educated  and 
well  endowed,  come  forward  to  teach  us  that  Slavery 

VOL.  I.  34 


398  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

is  not  only  no  evil,  but  is  "  right  as  a  principle,"  and 
is  "divine"  —  is  a  "part  of  the  divine  revelation" 
which  the  great  God  miraculously  made  to  man. 
What  a  spectacle ! 

Four  hundred  thousand  immigrants  come  here 
openly  every  year,  and  a  thousand  fugitives  flee  oft" 
by  night,  escaping  from  American  despotism.  They 
go  by  the  Underground  Railroad,  shut  up  in  boxes 
smaller  than  a  coffin,  or,  as  lately  happened,  riding 
through  the  storms  of  Ocean  in  the  fore-chains  of  a 
packet-ship,  wet  by  every  dash  of  the  sea,  and  frozen 
by  the  winter's  wind.  Far  off"  in  the  South  the 
spirit  of  freedom  came  in  the  Northern  blast  to  the 
poor  man,  and  said  to  him,  "  It  is  better  to  enter 
into  freedom  halt  and  maimed  rather  than,  having 
two  hands  and  two  feet,  to  continue  in  bondage  for- 
ever ; "  and  he  puts  himself  in  the  fore-chains  of  a 
packet-ship,  and,  half  frozen,  with  the  loss  of  two  of 
his  limbs,  he  reaches  the  North,  and  thanks  God  that 
he  has  still  one  hand  and  one  foot  to  enter  into  free- 
dom with.  Alas,  he  is  carried  back,  halt  and 
maimed,  to  die  ;  then  he  goes  from  bondage  to  that 
other  Commonwealth,  where  even  the  American 
slave  is  free  from  his  master,  and  Democrats  "  cease 
from  troubling." 

America  translates  the  Bible  —  I  am  glad  of  it, 
and  would  give  my  mite  thereto  —  into  a  hundred 
and  forty-seven  diff"erent  tongues,  and  sends  mission- 
aries all  over  the  world ;  and  here  at  home  are  three 


CONDITION"   OF   AMERICA.  399 

and  a  quarter  millions  of  American  men  who  have 
no  Bible,  whose  only  missionary  is  the  overseer. 

In  the  Hall  of  Independence,  Judge  Kane  and 
Judge  Grier  hold  their  court.  Two  great  official 
kidnappers  of  the  middle  States  hold  their  slave- 
court  in  the  very  building  where  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  decreed,  was  signed,  and  thence 
published  to  the  world.  What  a  spectacle,  it  is ! 
We  thought,  a  little  while  ago,  that  Judge  Jeffries 
was  a  historical  fiction  ;  that  Scroggs  was  impossi- 
ble; we  did  not  think  such  a  thing  could  exist. 
Jeffries  is  repeated  in  Philadelphia;  Scroggs  is 
brought  back  to  life  in  New  York  and  Boston  and 
various  Northern  towns.  What  a  spectacle  is  that 
for  the  Swiss,  the  German,  and  the  Scandinavian 
who  come  here! 

Do  these  immigrants  love  American  Slavery  ? 
The  German,  the  Swiss,  the  Scandinavian  hate  it. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  there  is  one  class  of  men  that  come 
here  who  love  it ;  it  is  the  class  most  of  all  sinned 
against  at  home.  When  the  Irishman  reaches 
America,  he  takes  ground  against  the  African.  I 
know  there  are  exceptions,  and  I  would  go  far  to 
honor  them ;  but  the  Lish,  as  a  body,  oppose  the 
emancipation  of  the  blacks  as  a  body.  Every  sect 
that  comes  from  abroad  numbers  friends  of  freedom 
—  except  the  Catholic.  Those  who  call  themselves 
infidels  from  Germany  do  not  range  on  the  slave- 
holder's side.     I  have  known  some  men  who  take 


400  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

the  ghastly  and  dreadful  name  of  Atheist ;  but  they 
said  "  there  is  a  Law  higher  than  the  slaveholder's  * 
statute."  But  do  you  know  a  Catholic  priest  who 
is  opposed  to  Slavery  ?  I  'wish  I  did.  There  are 
good  things  in  the  Catholic  faith  —  the  Protestants 
have  not  wholly  outgrown  it  yet.  But  I  wish  I 
could  hear  of  a  single  Catholic  priest  of  any 
eminence  who  ever  cared  any  thing  for  the  freedom 
of  the  most  oppressed  men  in  America.  I  have 
heard  of  none. 

Look  a  little  closer.  The  great  interests  prized 
most  in  America  are  Commerce  and  Politics.  The 
great  cities  are  the  head-quarters  of  these.  Agricul- 
ture and  the  mechanic  arts  are  spread  abroad  all 
over  the  country.  Commerce  and  politics  predom- 
inate in  the  cities.  New  York  is  the  metropolis  of 
Commerce ;  Washington  of  Politics. 

What  have  been  the  views  of  American  Com- 
merce in  respect  to  freedom  ?  It  has  been  against 
it ;  I  am  sorry  to  say  so.  In  Europe  commerce  is  the 
ally  of  freedom,  and  has  been  so  far  back  that  the 
memory  of  man  runs  not  to  the  contrary.  In  Amer- 
ica, the  great  commercial  centres,  ever  since  the  Rev- 
olution, have  been  hostile  to  freedom.  In  Massa- 
chusetts we  have  a  few  rich  men  friendly  to  freedom 
—  they  are  very  few ;  the  greater  part  of  even  Mas- 
sachusetts capital  goes  towards  bondage  —  not 
towards   freedom.      In    general,   the   chief  men   of 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  401 

commerce  are  hostile  to  it.  They  want  first  money, 
next  money,  and  money  last  of  all ;  fairly  if  they  can 
get  it  —  if  not,  unfairly.  Hence,  the  commercial 
cities  are  the  head-quarters  of  Slavery;  all  the  mer- 
cantile capitals  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  — 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  Cincin- 
nati;—  only  small  towns  repudiate  man-stealing. 
The  Northern  capitalists  lend  money  and  take  slaves 
as  collateral ;  they  are  good  security ;  you  can  realize 
on  it  any  day.  The  Northern  merchant  takes  slaves 
into  his  ships  as  merchandise.  It  pays  very  well. 
K  you  take  them  on  a  foreign  voyage,  it  is  "  pi- 
racy;" but  taken  coastwise,  the  domestic  slave-trade 
is  a  legal  traffic.  In  1852,  a  ship  called  the  "  Ed- 
ward Everett "  made  two  voyages  from  Baltimore  to 
New  Orleans,  and  each  time  it  carried  slaves,  once 
twelve,  and  once  twenty. 

A  sea  captain  in  Massachusetts  told  a  story  to  the 
commissioners  sent  to  look  after  the  Indians,  which 
I  will  repeat.  He  commanded  a  small  brig,  which 
plied  between  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  States.  "  One 
day,  at  Charleston,"  said  he,  "  a  man  came  and 
brought  to  me  an  old  negro  slave.  He  was  very  old, 
and  had  fought  in  the  Revolution,  and  had  been  much 
distinguished  for  bravery  and  other  soldierly  quali- 
ties. If  he  had  not  been  a  negro,  he  would  have 
become  a  Captain  at  least,  perhaps  a  Colonel.  But, 
in  his  old  age,  his  master  found  no  use  for  him,  and 
said  he  could  not  afford  to  keep  him.  He  asked  me 
34* 


402  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

to  take  the  revolutionary  soldier  and  carry  him  South 
and  sell  him.  I  carried  him,"  said  the  man,  "  to 
Mobile,  and  I  tried  to  get  as  good  and  kind  a  master 
for  him  as  I  could,  for  I  didn't  like  to  sell  a  man  who 
had  fought  for  his  country.  I  sold  the  old  revolu- 
tionary soldier  for  a  hundred  dollars  to  a  citizen  of 
Mobile,  who  raised  poultry,  and  he  set  him  to  tend  a 
hen-coop."  I  suppose  the  South  Carolina  master, 
"  a  true  gentleman,"  drew  the  pension  till  the  soldier 
died.  "  How  could  you  do  such  a  thing  ?  "  said  my 
friend,  who  was  an  Anti-Slavery  man.  "  If  I  didn't 
do  it,"  he  replied,  "  I  never  could  get  another  bale  of 
cotton,  nor  a  box  of  sugar,  nor  any  thing  to  carry 
from  or  to  any  Southern  port." 

In  Politics,  almost  all  the  leading  men  have  been 
servants  of  Slavery.  Three  "  major  prophets"  of  the 
American  Republic  have  gone  home  to  render  their 
account,  where  "  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master 
and  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary 
are  at  rest."  Clay,  Calhoun,  Webster  ;  they  were  all 
Prophets  of  Slavery,  all  against  freedom.  No  men  of 
high  political  standing  and  influence  have  ever  lived 
in  this  country  who  were  fallen  so  low  in  the  mire  of 
Slavery  as  they  during  the  last  twenty  years.  No 
political  footprints  have  sunk  so  deep  into  the  soil  — 
all  their  tracks  run  towards  bondage.  Where  they 
marched.  Slavery  followed. 

Our  Presidents  must  all  be  pro-slavery  men.  .Tohn 
Quincy  Adams  even,  the  only  American  politician. 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  403 

thus  far,  who  inherited  a  great  name  and  left  it 
greater,  as  President  did  nothing  against  Slavery  that 
has  yet  come  to  light ;  said  nothing  against  it  which 
has  yet  come  to  light.  The  brave  old  man,  in  his 
latter  days,  stirred  up  the  nobler  nature  in  him,  and 
amply  repaid  for  the  sins  of  omission.  But  the  other 
Presidents,  a  long  line  of  them — Jackson,  Van 
Buren,  Harrison,  —  they  are  growing  smaller  and 
smaller, —  Tyler,  Polk,  Taylor,  who  was  a  brave, 
earnest  man,  and  had  a  great  deal  of  good  in  him  — 
and  now  they  begin  rapidly  to  grow  very  small,  — 
Fillmore,  Pierce  —  can  you  find  a  single  breath  of 
freedom  in  these  men?  Not  one.  The  last  slave 
President,  though  his  cradle  was  rocked  in  New 
Hampshire,  is  Texan  in  his  latitude.  He  swears 
allegiance  to  Slavery  in  his  inaugural  address. 

Is  there  a  breath  of  freedom  in  the  great  federal 
officers  —  secretaries,  judges  ?  Ask  the  Cabinet ; 
ask  the  Supreme  Court;  the  federal  officers.  They 
are,  almost  without  exception,  servants  of  slavery. 
Out  of  forty  thousand  government  officers  to-day,  I 
think  thirty-seven  thousand  are  strongly  pro-slavery ; 
and  of  the  three  thousand  who  are  at  heart  anti- 
slavery,  we  have  yet  to  listen  long  before  we  shall 
hear  the  first  anti-slavery  lisp.  I  have  been  listen- 
ing ever  since  the  fourth  of  March,  1853,  and  have 
not  heard  a  word  yet.  In  the  English  Cabinet  there  are 
various  opinions  on  important  matters  ;  here  the  ad- 
ministration is  a  unit,  a  unit  of  bondage.    In  Russia, 


404  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

a  revolutionary  man  sometimes  holds  a  high  post  and 
does  great  service  ;  in  America,  none  but  the  servant 
of  Slavery  is  fit  for  the  political  functions  of  Democ- 
racy. I  believe,  in  the  United  States  there  is  not  a 
single  editor  holding  a  government  office  who  says 
any  thing  against  the  Nebraska  bill.  They  do  not 
dare.  Did  a  Whig  office-holder  oppose  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  or  its  enforcement  ?  I  never  heard  of  one. 
The  day  of  office,  like  the  day  of  bondage,  "  takes  off 
half  a  man's  manhood,"  and  the  other  half  it  hides ! 
A  little  while  ago,  an  Anti- Slavery  man  in  Massa- 
chusetts carried  a  remonstrance  against  the  Nebraska 
bill,  signed  by  almost  every  voter  in  his  town,  to  the 
postmaster,  and  asked  him,  "  Will  you  sign  it  ? " 
"  No,  I  shan't,"  said  he.  »  Why  not  ?  "  Before  he 
answered,  one  of  his  neighbors  said,  "  Well,  I  would 
not  sign  it  if  I  was  he."  "  Why  not  ?  "  said  the  man. 
"  Because  if  he  did,  he  would  be  tm*ned  out  of  office 
in  twenty -four  hours;  the  next  telegraph  would  do 
the  business  for  him."  "Well,"  said  my  friend,  "  if  I 
held  an  office  on  that  condition,  I  would  get  the  big- 
gest brass  dog-collar  I  could  find  and  put  it  round 
my  neck,  and  have  my  owner's  name  on  it,  in  great, 
large  letters,  so  that  everybody  might  see  whose  dog 
I  was." 

In  the  individual  States,  I  think  there  is  not  a 
single  Anti-Slavery  governor.  I  believe  Vermont 
is  the  only  State  with  an  Anti-Slavery  Supreme 
Court;  and  that  is  the  only  State  which  has  not 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  405 

much  concern  in  commerce  or  manufactures.     It  is 
a  State  of  farmers. 

For  a  long  time  the  American  Government  has 
been  controlled  by  Slavery.  There  is  an  old  story 
told  by  the  Hebrew  rabbis,  that  before  the  flood 
there  was  an  enormous  giant,  called  Gog.  After 
the  flood  had  got  into  the  full  tide  of  successful  ex- 
periment, and  every  man  was  drowned  except  those 
taken  into  the  ark,  Gog  came  striding  along  after 
Noah,  feeling  his  way  with  a  cane  as  long  as  a 
mast  of  the  "  Great  Republic."  The  water  had  only 
come  up  to  his  girdle.  It  was  then  over  the  hill 
tops  and  was  still  rising  —  raining  night  and  day. 
The  giant  hailed  the  Patriarch.  Noah  put  his  head 
out  of  the  window,  and  said,  "  Who  is  there  ?  "  "  It 
is  I,"  said  Gog.  "  Take  us  in ;  it  is  wet  outside ! " 
"  No,"  said  Noah,  "  You  're  too  big ;  no  room.  Be- 
sides, you  're  a  bad  character.  You  would  be  a  very 
dangerous  passenger,  and  would  make  trouble  in  the 
ark ;  1  shall  not  take  you  in.  You  may  get  on  top 
if  you  like ; "  and  he  clapped  to  the  window.  "  Go 
to  thunder,"  said  Gog ;  "  I  will  ride,  after  all."»  And 
he  strode  after  him,  wading  through  the  waters  ;  and 
mounting  on  the  top  of  the  ark,  with  one  leg  over 
the  larboard  and  the  other  over  the  starboard  side, 
steered  it  just  as  he  pleased  and  made  it  rough 
weather  inside.  Now,  in  making  the  Constitution, 
we  did  not  care  to  take  in  Slavery  in  express  terms. 


406  CONDITION   OP   AMERICA. 

It  looked  ugly.  We  allowed  it  to  get  on  the  top 
astride,  and  now  steers  us  just  where  it  pleases. 

The  Slave  Power  controls  the  President,  and  fills 
all  the  offices.  Out  of  the  twelve  elected  Presidents, 
four  have  been  from  the  North,  and  the  last  of  them 
might  just  as  well  have  been  taken  by  lot  at  the 
South  anywhere.  Mr.  Pierce,  I  just  now  said,  was 
Texan  in  his  latitude.  His  conscience  is  Texan; 
only  his  cradle  was  of  New  Hampshiie.  Of  the 
nine  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  five  are  frorai 
the  slave  States ;  the  Chief-Justice  is  from  the  slave 
States ;  all  slave  Judges.  A  part  of  the  Cabinet  are 
fi*om  the  North  —  I  forget  how  many ;  it  makes  no 
difference ;  they  are  all  of  the  same  Southern  com- 
plexion ;  and  the  man  who  was  taken  from  the 
furthest  north,  I  think  is  most  southern  in  his 
Slavery  proclivities. 

The  nation  fluctuates  in  its  policy.  Now  it  is  for 
internal  improvements ;  then  it  is  against  them.  Now 
it  is  for  a  bank ;  then  a  bank  is  "  unconstitutional." 
Now  it  is  for  free  trade ;  then  for  protection  ;  then  for 
free  tr£|^e  again —  "  protection  is  altogether  unconsti- 
tutionat."  Mr.  Calhoun  turned  clear  round. — When 
the  North  went  for  free  trade  and  grew  rich  by  that, 
Calhoun  did  not  like  it,  and  wanted  protection :  he 
thought  the  South  would  grow  rich  by  it.  But 
when  the  North  grew  rich  under  protection,  he  turned 
round  to  free  trade  again.     Now  the  nation  is  for 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  407 

giving  away  the  public  lands.  Sixteen  millions  of 
acres  of  "  swamp  lands "  are  given,  within  seven 
years,  to  States.  Twenty-five  millions  of  the  public 
lands  are  given  away  gratuitously  to  soldiers  —  six 
millions  in  a  single  year.  Forty-seven  millions  of 
the  public  lands  to  seventeen  States  for  schools,  col- 
leges, etc.  Forty-seven  thousand  acres  for  deaf  and 
dumb  asylums.  And  look  ;  just  now  it  changes  its 
policy,  and  Mr.  Pierce  is  opposed  to  granting  any 
land  —  "  it  is  not  constitutional "  —  to  Miss  Dix,  to 
make  the  insane  sober  and  bring  them  to  their  right 
minds.  He  may  have  a  private  reason  for  keeping 
the  people  in  a  state  of  craziness,  for  aught  I 
know. 

The  public  policy  changes  in  these  matters.  It 
never  changes  in  respect  to  Slavery.  Be  the  Whigs 
in  power.  Slavery  is  Whig ;  be  the  Democrats,  it  is 
Democratic.  At  first,  Slavery  was  an  exceptional 
measure,  and  men  tried  to  apologize  for  it  and  excuse 
it.  Now  it  is  a  Normal  Principle,  and  the  institution 
must  be  defended  and  enlarged. 


Commercial  men  must  be  moved,  I  suppose,  by 
commercial  arguments.  Look,  then,  at  this  state- 
ment of  facts. 

Slavery  is  unprofitable  for  the  people.  America  is 
poorer  for  Slavery.  I  am  speaking  in  the  great  focus 
of  American  commerce  —  the  third  city  for  popula- 


408  CONDITION    OF    AMERICA. 

tion  and  riches  in  the  Christian  world.  Let  me, 
therefore,  talk  about  Dollars.  America,  I  say,  is 
poorer  for  Slavery.  If  the  three  and  a  quarter  mill- 
ions of  slaves  were  freemen,  how  much  richer  would 
she  be  ?  There  is  no  State  in  the  Union  but  it  is 
poorer  for  Slavery.  It  is  a  bad  tool  to  work  with. 
The  educated  freeman  is  the  best  working  power  in 
the  world. 

Compare  the  North  with  the  South,  and  see  what 
a  difference  in  riches,  comfort,  education.  See  the 
superiority  of  the  North.  But  the  South  started 
with  every  advantage  of  nature  —  soil,  climate,  every 
thing.  To  make  the  case  plainer,  let  me  take  two 
great  States,  Virginia  and  New  York.  Compare 
them  together. 

In  geographical  position,  Virginia  has  every  ad- 
vantage over  New  York.  Almost  every  thing  that 
will  grow  in  the  Union  will  grow  somewhere  in  Vir- 
ginia, save  sugar.  The  largest  ships  can  sail  up  the 
Potomac  a  hundred  miles,  as  far  as  Alexandria.  The 
Rappahannock,  York,  James,  are  all  navigable  rivers. 
The  Ohio  flanks  Virginia  more  than  three  hundred 
miles.  There  are  sixty  miles  of  navigation  on  the 
Kanawha*.  New  York  has  a  single  navigable  stream 
with  not  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  navigation, 
from  Troy  to  the  ocean.  Virginia  has  the  best  harbor 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  several  smaller  ones.  Your 
State  has  but  a  single  maritime  port.  Virginia 
abounds  in  water  power  for  mills.     I  stood  once  on 


CONDITION    OF    AMERICA.  409 

the  steps  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington  and  within 
six  miles  of  me,  under  my  eyes,  there  was  a  water 
power  greater  than  that  which  turns  the  mills  of 
Lawrence,  Lowell,  and  Manchester,  all  put  together. 
In  1836,  it  did  not  turn  a  wheel ;  now,  I  am  told,  it 
drives  a  grist-mill.  No  State  is  so  rich  in  water 
power.  The  Alleghanies  are  a  great  water-shed,  and 
at  the  eaves  the  streams  rush  forward  as  if  impatient 
to  turn  mills.  Virginia  is  full  of  minerals  —  coal, 
iron,  lead,  copper,  salt.  Her  agricultural  resources 
are  immense.  What  timber  clothes  her  mountains  ! 
what  a  soil  for  Indian  corn,  wheat,  tobacco,  rice ! 
even  cotton  grows  in  the  southern  part.  Washington 
said  the  central  counties  of  Virginia  were  the  best 
land  in  the  United  States.  Daniel  Webster,  reporting 
to  Virginians  of  his  European  tour,  said,  he  saw  "  no 
lands  in  Europe  so  good  as  the  valley  of  the  Shen- 
andoah." Virginia  is  rich  in  mountain  pastures  favor- 
able to  sheep  and  horned  cattle.  Nature  gives  Vir- 
ginia all  that  can  be  asked  of  Nature.  What  a 
position  for  agriculture,  manufactures,  mining,  com- 
merce !  Norfolk  is  a  hundred  miles  nearer  Chicago 
than  New  York  is,  but  she  has  no  intercourse  with 
Chicago.  It  is  three  hundred  miles  nearer  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio  ;  but  if  a  Norfolk  man  wants  to  go  to 
St.  Louis,  I  believe  his  quickest  way  lies  through 
New  York.  It  is  not  a  day's  sail  further  from  Liver- 
pool ;  it  is  nearer  to  the  Mediterranean  and  South 
American  ports.  But  what  is  Norfolk,  with  her 
VOL.  I.  35 


410  COXDITION    OF    AMERICA. 

23,000  tons  of  shipping  and  her  fourteen  thousand 
population  ?  What  is  Richmond,  with  her  twenty- 
seven  thousand  men  —  ten  thousand  of  them  slaves  ? 
Nay,  what  is  Virginia  herself,  the  very  oldest  State  ? 
Let  me  cypher  out  some  numerical  details. 

In  1790,  she  had  748,000  inhabitants;  now  she 
has  1,421,000.  She  has  not  doubled  in  sixty  years. 
In  1790,  New  York  had  340,000;  now  she  has 
3,048,000.  She  has  multiplied  her  population  almost 
ten  times.  In  Virginia,  in  1850,  there  were  only 
452,000  more  freemen  than  sixty  years  before;  in 
New  York,  there  were  2,724,000  more  freemen  than 
there  were  in  1790.  There  are  only  165,000  dwell- 
ings in  Virginia ;  463,000  in  New  York.  Then  the 
Virginia  farms  were  worth  $216,000,000 ;  yours, 
$554,000,000 ;  Virginia  is  wholly  agricultural,  while 
you  are  also  manufacturing  and  commercial.  Her 
farm  tools  were  worth  $7,000,000 ;  yours,  $22,000,- 
000.  Her  cattle,  $33,000,000;  yours,  $73,000,000. 
The  orchard  products  of  Virginia  were  worth  $177,- 
000 ;  of  New  York,  $1,762,000.  Virginia  had  478 
miles  of  railroad  ;  you  had  1,826  miles.  She  had 
74,000  tons  of  shipping;  you  had  942,000.  The 
value  of  her  cotton  factories  was  not  two  millions ; 
the  value  of  yours  was  four  and  a  quarter  millions. 
She  produced  $841,000  worth  of  woollen  goods; 
you  produced  $7,030,000.  Her  furnaces  produced 
two  millions  and  a  half;  yours  produced  eight  mil- 
lions :    her    tanneries  $894,000;    yours,  $9,804,000. 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  411 

All  of  her  manufactures  together  were  not  worth 
$9,000,000  ;  those  of  the  city  of  New  York  alone, 
have  an  annual  value  of  $105,000,000.  Her  attend- 
ance at  school  was  109,000  ;  yours,  693,000. 

But  there  is  one  thing  in  which  Virginia  is  far  in 
advance  of  you.  Of  native  Virginians,  over  twenty 
years  old,  who  could  not  read  the  name  of  "  Christ" 
nor  the  word  "God"  —  free  white  people  who  can- 
not spell  "  Democrat"  —  there  were  87,383.  That  is, 
out  of  every  five  hundred  free  white  persons,  there 
were  one  hundred  and  five  that  could  not  spell 
Pierce.  In  New  York  there  are  30,670  —  no  more  ; 
so  that  out  of  five  hundred  persons,  there  are  six  that 
cannot  read  and  write.  Virginia  is  advancing  rap- 
idly upon  you  in  this  respect.  In  1840  she  had  only 
58,787  adults  who  could  not  read  and  write  ;  now 
28,596  more.     So  you  see  she  is  advancing! 

Virginia  has  87  newspapers ;  New  York,  428. 
The  Virginia  newspaper  circulation  is  89,000 ;  the 
New  York  newspaper  pirculation  is  1,622,000.  The 
Tribune  —  and  I  think  it  is  the  best  paper  there  is  in 
the  world  —  has  an  aggregate  circulation  of  110,000  ; 
20,000  more  than  all  the  newspapers  of  Virginia. 
Virginia  prints  every  year  9,000,000  copies  of  news- 
papers, all  told.  New  York  prints  115,000,000. 
The  New  York  Tribune  prints  15,000,000  —  more 
than  the  whole  State  of  Virginia  put  together. 
Such  is  the  state  of  things  counted  in  the  gross,  but 
I  think  the  New  York  quality  is  as  much  better  as 
the  quantity  is  more. 


412  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

Virginia  has  88,000  books  in  libraries  not  private ; 
New  York  1,760,000,  —  more  than  twenty  times  as 
much.  Virginia  exports  $3,500,000  worth  each  year  ; 
New  York  $53,000,000.  Vii-ginia  imports  $426,000 ; 
New  York,  $111,000,000.  But  in  one  article  of  ex- 
port she  is  in  advance  of  you  —  she  sends  to  the 
man-markets  of  the  South  about  $10,000,000  or 
$12,000,000  worth  of  her  children  every  year ;  ex- 
ports slaves!  The  estimated  value  of  all  the  prop- 
erty real  and  personal  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  in- 
cluding slaves,  is  $430,701,882;  of  New  York 
$1,080,000,000,  without  estimating  the  value  of  the 
men  who  own  it.  Virginia  has  got  472,528  slaves. 
I  will  estimate  them  at  less  than  the  market  value  — 
at  $400  each  ;  they  come  to  $189,000,000.  I  sub- 
tract the  value  of  the  working  people  of  Virginia, 
and  she  is  worth  not  quite  $242,000,000.  Now,  the 
State  of  New  York  might  buy  up  all  the  property  of 
Virginia,  including  the  slaves,  and  still  have  $649,- 
000,000  left ;  might  buy  up  all  the  real  and  personal 
property  of  Virginia,  except  the  working-men,  and 
have  $838,000,000  left.  The  North  appropriates  the 
rivers,  the  mines,  the  harbors,  the  forests,  fire  and 
water  —  the  South  kidnaps  men.  Behold  the  com- 
mercial result. 

Virginia  is  a  great  State  — very  great !  You  do  not 
know  how  great  she  is.  I  will  read  it  to  you  presently. 
Things  are  great  and  small  by  comparison.  I  am 
quoting  again  from  the  Richmond  Examiner  (March 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  413 

24,  1854).  "  Virginia  in  this  confederacy  is  the  im- 
personation of  the  well-born,  well-educated,  well- 
bred  aristocrat "  [well  born,  while  the  children  of 
Jefferson  and  the  only  children  of  Madison  are  a 
"  connecting  link  between  the  human  and  brute  cre- 
ation ; "  well  educated,  with  twenty-one  per  cent,  of 
her  white  adults  unable  to  read  the  vote  they  cast 
against  the  unalienable  rights  of  man  ;  well  bred, 
when  her  great  product  for  exportation  is  —  the 
children  of  her  own  loins!  Slavery  is  a  "patriarchal 
institution ; "  the  democratic  Abrahams  of  Virginia 
do  not  otfer  up  their  Isaacs  to  the  Lord ;  that  w  ould 
be  a  "  sacrifice,"  they  only  sell  them.  So]  ;  "  she  looks 
down  from  her  elevated  pedestal  upon  her  parvoiuc, 
ignorant,  mendacious  Yankee  vilifiers,  as  coldly  and 
calmly  as  a  marble  statue ;  occasionally,  she  conde- 
scends to  recognize  the  existence  of  her  adversaries 
at  the  very  moment  when  she  crushes  them.  But 
she  does  it  without  anger,  and  with  no  more  hatred 
of  them  than  the  gardener  feels  towards  the  insects 
which  he  finds  it  necessary  occasionally  to  destroy." 
"  She  feels  that  she  is  the  sword  and  buckler  of  the 
South  —  that  it  is  her  influence  which  has  so  fre- 
quently defeated  and  driven  back  in  dismay  the 
Abolition  party  when  flushed  by  temporary  victory. 
Brave,  calm,  and  determined,  wise  in  times  of  excite- 
ment, always  true  to  the  Slave  Power,  never  rash  or 
indiscreet,  the  waves  of  Northern  fanaticism  burst 
harmless  at  her  feet ;  the  contempt  for  her  Northern 

35* 


414  '      CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

revilers  is  the  result  of  her  consciousness  of  her  in- 
fluence in  the  political  world.  She  makes  and  un- 
makes Presidents ;  she  dictates  her  terms  to  the 
Northern  Democracy  and  they  obey  her.  She  selects 
from  among  the  faithful  of  the  North  a  man  upon 
whom  she  can  rely,  and  she  makes  him  President." 
This  latter  is  true !  The  opinion  of  Richmond  is 
of  more  weight  than  the-  opinion  of  New  York. 
Slavery,  the  political  Gog  on  the  outside,  steers  the 
ark  of  commercial  Noah,  and  makes  it  rough  or 
smooth  weather  inside,  just  as  he  likes. 

"  In  the  early  days  of  the  Republic,  the  superior 
sagacity  of  her  statesmen  enabled  them  to  rivet  so 
firmly  the  shackles  of  the  slave,  that  the  Abolition- 
ists will  never  be  able  to  unloose  them." 

"  A  wide  and  impassable  gulf  separates  the  noble, 
proud,  glorious  Old  Dominion  from  her  Northern 
traducers ;  the  mastiff  dare  not  willingly  assail  the 
skunk  I "  "  When  Virginia  takes  the  field,  she 
crushes  the  whole  Abolition  party ;  her  slaughter  is 
wholesale,  and  a  hundred  thousand  Abolitionists  are 
cut  down  when  she  issues  her  commands ! " 

Again,  (April  4th,  1854,)  "A  hundred  Southern 
gentlemen,  armed  with  riding-whips,  could  chase 
an  army  of  invading  Abolitionists  into  the  Atlantic." 
In  reference  to  the  project  at  the  North  of  send- 
ing Northern  Abolitionists  along  with  the  Northern 
Slave-breeders  to  Nebraska,  to  put  freedom  into  the 
soil  before  Slavery  gets  there,  the  Examiner  says  : 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  415 

"  Why,  a  hundred  wild,  lank,  half-horse,  half-alli- 
gator Missouri  and  Arkansas  emigrants  would,  if  so 
disposed,  chase  out  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas  all  the 
Abolitionists  who  have  figured  for  the  last  twenty 
years  at  Anti-Slavery  meetings." 

I  say  Slavery  is  not  profitable  for  the  Nation  nor 
for  a   State,  but  it  is  profitable  for    Slave-owners. 
You    will    see    why.      If    the    Northern    capitalist 
owned   the   weavers   and   spinners  at   Lowell   and 
Lawrence,  New  England  would  be  poorer ;  and  the 
working-men  would  not  be  so  well  off",  or  so  well- 
educated  ;    but    Undershot   and    Overshot,   Turbine 
Brothers,  Spindle  &  Co.,  would  be  richer  and  would 
get  larger  dividends.     Land  monopoly  in  England 
enfeebles   the   island,  but  enriches   the  aristocracy. 
How   poor,   ill-fed    and    ill-clad   were    the    French 
peasants  before  the  revolution ;  how  costly  was  the 
chateau  of  the  noble.     Monopoly  was  bad  for  the 
people ;  profitable  for  the  rich  men.     How  poor  are 
the  peasants  in  Italy;  how  wealthy  the  Cardinals 
and  the  Pope.     Oppression  enriches  the  oppressor ; 
it  makes  poorer  the  downtrodden.      Piracy  is  very 
costly  to  the  merchant  and  to  mankind ;  but  it  feeds 
the  pirate.     Slavery  impoverishes  Virginia,  but  it  en- 
riches the  master.     It  gives  him  money — commer- 
cial power,  —  office  —  political  power.     The  slave- 
holder is  drawn  in   his   triumphal  chariot  by  two 
chattels ;  one,  the  poor  black  man,  whom  he  "  owns 


416  CONDITION    OP   AMERICA. 

legally;"  the  other,  is  the  poor  white  man,  whom 
he  "  owns  morally "  and  harnesses  to  his  chariot. 
Hence  these  American  lords  of  the  lash,  cleave  to 
this  institution  —  they  love  it.  To  the  slaveholders, 
Slavery  is  money  and  power  ! 

Now  the  South,  weak  in  numbers,  feeble  in  re- 
spect to  money,  has  continually  directed  the  politics 
of  America,  just  as  she  would.  Her  ignorance  and 
poverty  were  more  efficacious  than  the  northern 
riches  and  education.  She  is  in  earnest  for  Slavery; 
the  North  not  in  earnest  for  freedom  I  only  earnest 
for  money.  So  long  as  the  Federal  Government 
grinds  the  axes  of  the  northern  merchant,  he  cares 
little  whether  the  stone  is  turned  by  the  free  man's 
labor  or  the  slave's.  Hence,  the  great  centres  of 
northern  commerce  and  manufactures  are  also  the 
great  centres  of  pro-slavery  politics.  Philadelphia, 
New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  Cincinnati,  they  all  liked 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  all  took  pains  to  seize  the 
fugitive  who  fled  to  a  Northern  altar  for  freedom ; 
nay,  the  most  conspicuous  clergymen  in  those  cities 
became  apostles  of  Kidnapping;  their  churches 
were  of  Commerce,  not  Christianity.  The  North 
yielded  to  that  last  most  insolent  demand.  Under 
the  influence  of  that  excitement  she  chose  the  pres- 
ent Administration,  the  present  Congress.  Now 
see  the  result !  Whig  and  Democrat  meet  on  the 
same  platform  at  Baltimore.     It  was  the  platform  of 


CONDITION    OF   AMERICA.  417 

Slavery.  Both  candidates  —  Scott  and  Pierce  — 
gave  in  their  allegiance  to  the  same  measure ;  it 
was  the  measure  which  nullifies  the  fiirst  principles 
of  American  Independence  —  they  were  sworn  on 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  Whig  and  Democrat 
knew  no  "  Higher  Law,"  only  the  statute  of  slave- 
holders. Conscience  bent  down  before  the  Constitu- 
tion. What  sort  of  a  government  can  you  expect 
from  such  conduct  I  What  Representatives!  Just 
what  you  have  got.  Sow  the  wind,  will  you  ?  then 
reap  the  whirlwind.  Mr.  Pierce  said  in  his  Inaugu- 
ral, "  I  believe  that  involuntary  servitude  is  recog- 
nized by  the  Constitution  ; "  "  that  it  stands  like  any 
other  admitted  right.  I  hold  that  the  Compromise 
measures,  [that  is,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,]  are 
strictly  Constitutional  and  to  be  unhesitatingly  car- 
ried into  effect."  The  laws  to  secure  the  master's 
right  to  capture  a  man  in  the  free  States  "  should  be 
respected  and  obeyed,  not  with  a  reluctance  encour- 
aged by  abstract  opinions  as  to  their  propriety  in  a 
different  state  of  Society,  but  cheerfully  and  accord- 
ing to  the  decision  of  the  tribunal  to  which  their 
exposition  belongs."  These  words  were  historical, 
—  reminiscences  of  the  time  when  "  no  Higher 
Law"  was  the  watchword  of  the  American  State 
and  the  American  Church ;  they  were  prophetic  — 
ominous  of  what  we  see  to-day. 

I.    Here  is  the  Gadsden  Treaty  which  has  just  been 


418  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

negotiated.  How  bad  it  is  I  cannot  say ;  only  this : 
If  I  am  rightly  informed,  a  tract  of  39,000,000  acres, 
larger  than  all  Virginia,  is  "reannexed"  to  the  slave 
soil  which  the  "  flag  of  our  Union "  already  waves 
over.  The  whole  thing,  when  it  is  fairly  understood 
by  the  public,  I  think  will  be  seen  to  be  a  more 
iniquitous  matter  than  this  Nebraska  wickedness. 

II.  Then  comes  the  Nebraska  bill,  yet  to  be  con- 
summated. While  we  are  sitting  here  in  cold  de- 
bate, it  may  be  the  measure  has  passed.  From  the 
beginning  I  have  never  had  any  doubts  that  it  would 
pass.  If  it  could  not  be  put  through  this  session  — 
as  I  thought  it  would  —  I  felt  sure  that  before  this 
Congress  goes  out  of  office,  Nebraska  would  be 
slave  soil.  You  see  what  a  majority  there  was  in 
the  Senate ;  you  see  what  a  majority  there  is  in  the 
House.  I  know  there  is  an  opposition  —  and  most 
brilliantly  conducted,  too,  by  the  few  faithful  men  ; 
but  see  this :  The  Administration  has  yet  three  years 
to  run.  There  is  an  annual  income  of  sixty  millions 
of  dollars.  There  are  forty  thousand  offices  to  be 
disposed  of — four  thousand  very  valuable.  And  do 
you  think  that  a  Democratic  Administration,  with 
that  amount  of  offices,  of  money  and  time,  cannot 
buy  up  northern  doughfaces  enough  to  carry  any 
measure  it  pleases  ?  I  know  better.  Once  I  thought 
that  Texas  could  not  be  annexed.  It  was  done.  I 
learned  wisdom  from  that.     I  have  taken  counsel 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  419 

of  my  fears.  I  have  not  seen  any  barrier  on  which 
the  North  would  rally  that  we  have  come  to  yet. 
There  are  some  things  behind  us.  John  Randolph 
said,  years  ago,  "  We  will  drive  you  from  pillar  to 
post,  back,  back,  back."  He  has  been  as  good  as  his 
word.  We  have  been  driven  ~"  back,  back,  back." 
But  we  cannot  be  driven  much  further.  There  is  a 
spot  where  we  shall  stop.  I  am  afraid  w^e  have  not 
come  to  it  yet.     I  will  say  no  more  about  it  just  now 

—  because  not  many  weeks  ago  I  stood  here  and 
said  a  great  deal.*  You  have  listened  to  me  when 
I  was  feeble  and  hollow-voiced ;  I  will  not  tax  your 
patience  now,  for  in  this,  as  in  a  celebrated  feast  of 
old,  they  have  "  kept  the  good  wine  until  now ! " 
(alluding  to  Mr.  Garrison  and  Mr.  Phillips  who  were 
to  follow). 

If  the  Nebraska  bill  is  defeated,  I  shall  rejoice  that 
iniquity  is  foiled  once  more.  But  if  it  become  a  law 

—  there  are  some  things  which  seem  probable. 

1.  On  the  Fourth  of  March,  1857,  the  » Demo- 
crats" will  have  "leave  to  withdraw"  from  oJfRce. 

2.  Every  Northern  man  who  has  taken  a  promi- 
nent stand  in  behalf  of  Slavery  will  be  politically 
ruined.  You  know  what  befell  the  Northern  poli- 
ticians who  voted  for  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  a 
similar  fate  hangs  over  such  as  enslave  Nebraska. 
Already,     Mr.    Everett    is,   theologically   speaking, 

'  *  See  above  p.  295,  et  seq. 


420  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

among  the  "  lost ; "  and  of  all  the  three  thousand 
New  England  ministers  whose  petition  he  dared  not 
present,  not  one  will  ever  pray  for  his  political  sal- 
vation. 

Pause  with  me  and  drop  a' tear  over  the  ruin  of 
Edward  Everett,  a  man  of  large  talents  and  com- 
mensurate industry,  very  learned,  the  most  scholarly 
man,  perhaps,  in  the  country,  with  a  persuasive 
beauty  of  speech  only  equalled  by  this  American 
[Mr.  Phillips],  who  therein  surpasses  him  ;  he  has 
had  a  long  career  of  public  service,  public  honor  — 
Clergyman,  Professor,  Editor,  Representative,  Gov- 
ernor, Ambassador,  President  of  Harvard  College, 
Senator,  alike  the  Ornament  and  the  Auxiliary  of 
many  a  learned  Society  —  he  yet  comes  to  such  an 
end. 

"  This  is  the  state  of  man  ;  to-day,  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hope ;  to-morrow,  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him ; 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  Nebraska's  frost ; 
And,  when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  surely, 
His  greatness  is  a  ripening,  nips  his  root. 
And  then  he  falls . 

"  O  how  wretched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  public  favors  ! 
There  is  betwixt  that  smile  he  would  aspire  to, 
That  sweet  aspect  of  voters,  and  their  ruin, 
More  pangs  and  fears  than  wars  or  women  have ; 
And  when  he  falls,  he  falls  like  Lucifer, 
Never  to  hope  again  !  " 


CONDITION    OF    AMERICA.  421 

Mr.  Douglas  also  is  finished ;  the  success  of  his 
measure  is  his  own  defeat.  Mr.  Pierce  has  three 
short  years  to  serve ;  then  there  will  be  one  more  Ex- 
President  —  ranking  with  Tyler  and  Fillmore.  Mr.. 
Seward  need  not  agitate, 

"  Let  it  work 


For  't  is  the  sport  to  have  the  enginer 
Hoise  with  his  own  petar." 


III.  The  next  thing  is  the  enslavement  of  Cuba. 
That  is  a  very  serious  matter.  It  has  been  desired  a 
long  time.  Lopez,  a  Spanish  fillibuster,  undertook 
it  and  was  legally  put  to  death.  I  am  not  an  advo- 
cate for  the  garrot^,  but  I  think,  all  things  taken  into 
consideration,  that  he  did  not  meet  with  a  very  inad- 
equate mode  of  death,  and  I  believe  such  is  the  gen- 
eral opinion,  not  only  in  Cuba,  but  in  the  United 
States.  But  Young  America  is  not  content  with, 
that.  Mr.  Dean,  a  little  while  ago,  in  the  House, 
proposed  to  repeal  the  neutrality  laws  —  to  set  filli- 
busterism  on  its  legs  again.  You  remember  the 
President's  message  about  the  "  Black  Warrior  "  — 
how  black-warrior-like  it  was ;  and  then  comes  the 
"unanimous  resolution"  of  the  Louisiana  legisla- 
ture asking  the  United  States  to  interfere  and  declare 
war,  in  case  Cuba  should  undertake  to  emancipate 
her  slaves.  Senator  Slidell's  speech  is  still  tingling 
in  our  ears,  asking  the  government  to  repeal  the  neu- 

VOL.  I.  36 


422  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

trality  laws  and  allow  every  pirate  who  pleases  to 
land  in  Cuba  and  burn  and  destroy.  You  know 
Mr.  Soul^'s  conduct  in  Madrid.  It  is  rumored  that 
he  has  been  authorized  to  offer  $250,000,000  for 
Cuba.  The  sum  is  enormous  ;  but  when  you  consider 
the  character  of  this  administration  and  the  Inau- 
gural of  President  Pierce,  the  unscrupulous  abuse 
made  of  public  money,  I  do  not  think  it  is  a  very 
extraordinary  supposition. 

But  this  matter  of  getting  possession  of  Cuba  is 
something  dangerous  as  well  as  difficult.  There  are 
three  conceivable  ways  of  acquiring  it. 

One  is  by  buying,  and  that  I  take  it  is  wholly  out 
of  the  question.  K  I  am  rightly  informed,  there  is 
a  certain  Spanish  debt  owing  to  Englishmen,  and 
that  Cuba  is  somehow  pledged  as  a  sort  of  collateral 
security  for  the  Spanish  Bonds.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  Cuba  is  not  to  be  bought  for  many  years  with- 
out the  interference  of  England,  and  depend  upon  it 
England  will  not  allow  it  to  be  sold  for  the  establish- 
ment of  Slavery  ;  for  I  think  it  is  pretty  well  under- 
stood by  politicians  that  there  is  a  regular  agreement 
entered  into  between  Spain  on  the  one  side  and  Eng- 
land on  the  other,  that  at  a  certain  period  within 
twenty  five  years  every  slave  in  Cuba  shall  be  set 
free.  I  believe  this  is  known  to  men  somewhat 
versed  in  the  secret  history  of  the  two  Cabinets  of 
England  and  of  Spain.  England  has  the  same  wish 
for  land  which  fires  our  Anglo-Saxon  blood.     She 


CONDITION   OF  AMERICA.  423 

has  islands  in  the  West  Indies ;  the  Moro  in  Cuba 
is  only  a  hundred  miles  from  Jamaica.  If  we  get 
Cuba  for  Slavery,  we  shall  next  want  the  British 
West  Indies  for  the  same  institution.  Cuba  filled 
with  fillibusters  would  be  a  dangerous  neighbor  to 
Jamaica. 

The  second  way  is  by  fillibustering  ;  and  that  Mr. 
Slidell  and  Mr.  Dean  want  to  try.  The  third  is  by 
open  war.  Now,  fillibusterism  will  lead  to  open 
war,  so  I  will  consider  only  this  issue. 

I  know  that  Americans  will  fight  more  desperately, 
perhaps,  on  land  or  sea,  than  any  other  people.  But 
fighting  is  an  ugly  business,  especially  with  such  an- 
tagonists as  we  shall  have  in  this  case.  It  is  a  mat- 
ter well  understood  that  the  Captain- General  of 
Cuba  has  a  paper  in  his  possession  authorizing  him 
discretionally  to  free  the  slaves  and  put  arms  in  their 
hands  whenever  it  is  thought  necessary.  It  is  rather 
difficult  to  get  at  the  exact  statistics  of  Cuba.  There 
has  been  no  census  since  1842,  when  the  population 
was  estimated  at  a  million.  I  will  reckon  it  now  at 
1,300,000  —  700,000  blacks,  and  600,000  whites.  Of 
the  700,000  blacks,  half  a  million  are  slaves  and  two 
hundred  thousand  free  men.  Now,  a  black  free  man 
in  Cuba  is  a  very  different  person  from  the  black  free 
man  in  the  United  States.  He  has  rights.  He  is 
not  turned  out  of  the  omnibus,  nor  the  meeting- 
house, nor  the  graveyard.  He  is  respected  by  the 
law ;  he  respects  himself,  and  is  a  formidable  person  ; 


424  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

let  the  blacks  be  furnished  with  arms,  they  are  dan- 
gerous foes.  And  remember  there  are  mountain  fast- 
nesses in  the  centre  of  the  island ;  that  it  is  as  de- 
fensible as  St.  Domingo;  and  has  a  very  unhealthy 
climate  for  Northern  men.  The  Spaniard  would 
have  great  allies  :  the  vomito  is  there  ;  typhoid,  dys- 
entery, yellow  fever,  the  worst  of  all,  is  there.  A 
Northern  army  even  of  fillibusters  would  fight 
against  the  most  dreadful  odds.  "  The  Lord  from 
on  high,"  as  the  old  Hebrews  say,  would  fight 
against  the  Northern  men  ;  the  pestilence  that  swept 
off  Sennacharib's  host  would  not  respect  the  filli- 
buster. 

That  is  not  all.  What  sort  of  a  navy  has  Spain  ? 
One  hundred  and  seventy-nine  ships  of  war !  They 
are  small  mostly,  but  they  carry  over  1,400  cannon, 
and  24,000  men  — 15,000  marines  and  9,000  sail- 
ors. The  United  States  has  seventy -five  ships  of  war ; 
2,200  cannon,  14,000  men  —  large  ships,  heavy  can- 
non. That  is  not  all.  Spaniards  fight  desperately^ 
A  Spanish  Armada  I  should  not  be  very  much  afraid 
of;  but  Spain  will  issue  letters  of  marque,  and  a 
Portuguese  or  Spanish  pirate  is  rather  an  uncom- 
fortable being  to  meet.  Our  commerce  is  spread  over 
all  the  seas ;  there  is  no  mercantile  marine  so  unpro- 
tected. Our  ships  do  not  carry  muskets,  still  less 
cannon,  since  pirates  have  been  sw^ept  off  the  sea. 
Let  Spain  issue  letters  of  marque,  England  winking 
at  it,  and   Algerine  pirates  from   out  the    Barbary 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  425 

States  of  Africa,  and  other  pirates  from  the  Brazilian, 
Mexican,  and  the  West  Indian  ports,  would  prowl 
about  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  and  over  all 
the  bosom  of  the  Atlantic  ;  and  then  where  would  be 
our  commerce  ?  The  South  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
that.  She  has  no  shipping.  Yes,  Norfolk  has 
23,000  tons.  The  South  is  not  afraid.  The  North 
has  four  million  tons  of  shipping.  Touch  the 
commerce  of  a  Northern  man,  and  you  touch  his 
heart. 

England  has  conceded  to  us  as  a  measure  just 
what  we  asked.  We  have  always  declared,  "  free 
ships  make  free  goods."  England  said  "  Enemies' 
goods  make  enemies'  ships."  Now  she  has  not  af- 
firmed our  Principle ;  she  has  assented  to  our  Meas- 
ure. That  is  all  you  can  expect  her  to  do.  But  if 
we  repeal  our  neutrality  laws  and  seek  to  get  Cuba 
in  order  to  establish  Slavery  there,  endangering  the 
interests  of  England  and  the  freedom  of  her  colored 
citizens,  depend  upon  it,  England  will  not  suffer  this 
to  be  done  without  herself  interfering.  If  she  is  so 
deeply  immersed  in  European  wars  that  she  cannot 
interfere  directly,  she  will  indirectly.  But  I  have 
not  thought  that  England  and  France  are  to  be 
much  engaged  in  a  European  war.  I  suppose  the 
intention  of  the  American  Cabinet  is  to  seize  Cuba 
as  soon  as  the  British  and  Russians  are  fairly  fight- 
ing, thinking  that  England  will  not  interfere.  But  in 
"  this  war  of  elder  sons  "  which  now  goes  on  for  the 
36* 


426  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA.      • 

dismemberment  of  Turkey,  it  is  not  clear  that  Eng- 
land will  be  so  deeply  engaged  that  she  cannot  at- 
tend to  her  domestic  affairs,  or  the  interest  of  her 
West  Indies.  I  think  these  powers  are  going  to 
divide  Turkey  between  them,  but  I  do  not  believe 
they  are  going  to  do  much  fighting  there.  If  we  are 
bent  on  seizing  Cuba,  a  long  and  ruinous  fight  is  a 
thing  that  ought  to  enter  into  men's  calculations. 
Now,  let  such  a  naval  warfare  take  place,  and  how 
will  your  insurance  stock  look  in  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Boston  ?  How  will  your  merchants  look 
when  reports  come  one  after  another  that  your  ships 
are  carried  in  as  prizes  by  Spain,  or  sunk  on  the 
ocean  after  they  have  been  plundered  ?  I  speak  in 
the  great  commercial  metropolis  of  America.  I  wish 
these  things  to  be  seriously  considered  by  mercantile 
men.  Let  the  Northern  men  look  out  for  their  own 
ships. 

But  here  is  a  matter  which  the  South  may  think 
of.  In  case  of  foreign  war,  the  North  will  not  be 
the  battle  field.  An  invading  army  would  attack  the 
South.  Who  would  defend  it  —  the  local  militia, 
the  "  Chivalry  "  of  South  Carolina,  the  "  gentlemen  " 
of  Virginia,  who  are  to  slaughter  a  hundred  thou- 
sand Abolitionists  in  a  day  ?  Let  an  army  set  foot 
on  Southern  soil,  with  a  few  black  regiments ;  let 
the  commander  offer  freedom  to  all  the  Slaves,  and 
put  arms  in  their  hands ;  let  him  ask  them  to  burn 
houses  and  butcher  men ;  and  there  would  be  a  state 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  427 

of  things  not  quite  so  pleasant  for  "  gentlemen  "  of 
the  South  to  look  at.  "  They  that  laughed  at  the 
grovelling  worm  and  trod  on  him,  may  cry  and  howl 
when  they  see  the  stoop  of  the  flying  and  fiery- 
mouthed  dragon  !  "  Now,  there  is  only  one  opinion 
about  the  valor  of  President  Pierce.  Like  the  sword 
of  Hudibras,  it  cut  into  itself, 

" for  lack 


Of  other  stuff  to  hew  and  hack." 

But  would  he  like  to  stand  with  such  a  fire  in  his 
rear  ?  Set  a  house  on  fire  by  hot  shot,  and  you  do 
not  know  how  much  of  it  will  burn  down. 

IV.  Well,  if  Nebraska  is  made  a  slave  territory, 
as  I  suppose  it  will  be,  the  next  thing  is  the  posses- 
sion of  Cuba.  Then  the  war  against  Spain  will 
come,  as  I  think,  inevitably.  But  even  if  we  do  not 
get  Cuba,  Slavery  must  be  extended  to  other  parts  of 
the  Union.  This  may  be  done  judicially,  by  the 
Supreme  Court  —  one  of  the  most  powerful  agents  to 
destroy  local  self-government  and  legalize  centraliza- 
tion ;  or  legislatively  by  Congress.  Already  Slavery 
is  established  in  California.  An  attempt,  you  know, 
was  made  to  establish  it  in  Illinois.  Senator 
Toombs,  the  other  day,  boasted  to  Mr.  John  P.  Hale, 
that  it  would  "  not  be  long  before  the  slaveholder 
would  sit  down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument 
with  his  slaves."     You  and  I  may  live  to  see  it  —  at 


428  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

least  to  see  the  attempt  made.  A  writer  in  a  promi- 
nent Southern  journal,  the  Charleston  Courier  (of 
March  16,  1854),  declares  "that  domestic  Slavery  is 
a  constitutional  institution  and  cannot  be  prohibited 
in  a  territory  by  either  territorial  or  congressional 
legislation.  It  is  recognized  by  the  Constitution  as 
an  existing  and  lawful  institution  .  .  .  and  by 
the  recognition  and  establishment  of  Slavery  eo 
nomine  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  under  the  consti- 
tutional provision  for  the  acquisition  of  and  exclusive 
legislation  over  such  a  capitoline  district ;  and  by 
that  clause  also  which  declares  that  the  citizens  of 
each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States."  "  The 
citizens  of  any  State  .  .  .  cannot  be  constitution- 
ally denied  the  equal  right  ...  of  sojourning  or 
settling  .  .  .  with  their  man-servants  and  maid- 
servants ...  in  any  portion  of  the  wide  spread 
Canaan  which  the  Lord  their  God  hath  given  them, 
there  to  dwell  unmolested  in  person  or  property." 
Admirable  exposition  of  the  Constitution !  The 
free  black  man  must  be  shut  up  in  jail  if  he  goes 
from  Boston  in  a  ship  to  Charleston,  but  the  slave- 
holder may  bring  his  slaves  to  Massachusetts  and 
dwell  there,  unmolested  with  his  property  in  men. 
South  Carolina  has  a  white  population  of  274,567 
persons,  considerably  less  than  half  the  population  of 
this  city.  But  if  South  Carolina  says  to  the  State  of 
New  York,  with  three  million  men  in  it.  Let  us  bring 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  429 

our  slaves  to  New  York,  what  will  the  "  Hards  "  and 
the  "  Softs  "  and  the  "  Silver  Greys  "  answer  ?  Gen- 
tlemen, we  shall  hear  what  we  shall  hear.  I  fear  that 
not  an  office-holder  of  any  note  would  oppose  the 
measure.  It  might  be  carried  with  the  present  Su- 
preme Court,  or  Congress,  I  make  no  doubt. 

But  this  is  not  the  end.  After  the  Gadsden 
Treaty,  the  enslavement  of  Nebraska,  the  extension 
of  Slavery  to  the  free  States,  the  seizure  of  Cuba, 
with  other  Islands  —  San  Domingo,  etc.,  —  there  is 
one  step  more  —  the  Re-establishment  of  the 
African  Slave-Trade. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Southern  Standard  thus 
develops  the  thought :  "  With  firmness  and  judg- 
ment we  can  open  up  the  African  slave  emigration 
again  to  people  the  whole  region  of  the  tropics. 
We  can  boldly  defend  this  upon  the  most  enlarged 
system  of  philanthropy.  It  is  far  better  for  the  wild 
races  of  Africa  themselves."  "  The  good  old  Las 
Casas,  in  1519,  was  the  first  to  advise  Spain  to 
import  Africans  to  her  colonies.  .  .  .  Experience 
has  shown  his  scheme  was  founded  in  wise  and 
Christian  philanthropy.  .  .  .  The  time  is  coming 
when  we  will  boldly  defend  this  emigration  [kidnap- 
ping men  in  Africa  and  selling  them  in  the  '  Chris- 
tian Republic ']  before  the  world.  The  hypocritical 
cant  and  whining  morality  of  the  latter-day  saints 
will  die  away  before  the  majesty  of  commerce.  .  .  . 


430  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

We  have  too  long  been  governed  by  psalm-sing- 
ing schoolmasters  from  the  North.  .  .  .  The  folly 
commenced  in  our  own  government  uniting  with 
Great  Britain  to  declare  slave-importing  piracy." 
..."  A  general  rupture  in  Europe  would  force 
upon  us  the  undisputed  sway  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  the  West  Indies.  .  .  .  With  Cuba  and 
St.  Domingo,  we  could  control  the  .  .  .  power  of 
the  world.  Our  true  policy  is  to  look  to  Brazil  as 
the  next  great  slave  power.  ...  A  treaty  of  com- 
merce and  alliance  with  Brazil  will  give  us  the  con- 
trol over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  its  border  coun- 
tries, together  with  the  islands ;  and  the  consequence 
of  this  will  place  African  Slavery  beyond  the  reach 
of  fanaticism  at  home  or  abroad.  These  two  great 
slave  powers  .  .  .  ought  to  guard  and  strengthen 
their  mutual  interests.  .  .  .  We  can  not  only  preserve 
domestic  servitude,  but  we  can  defy  the  power 
of  the  world."  ..."  The  time  will  come  that  all 
the  islands  and  regions  suited  to  African  Slavery, 
between  us  and  Brazil,  will  fall  under  the  control  of 
these  two  powers.  ...  In  a  few  years  there  will 
be  no  investment  for  the  $200,000,000  ...  so 
profitable  ...  as  the  development  ...  of  the  tropi- 
cal regions "  [that  is  as  the  African  slave-trade.] 
..."  If  the  slave-holding  race  in  these  States  are 
but  true  to  themselves,  they  have  a  great  destiny  be- 
fore them." 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  431 

Now,  gentlemen  and  ladies,  who  is  to  blame  that 
things  have  come  to  such  a  pass  as  this  ?  The 
South  and  the  North ;  but  the  North  much  more 
than  the  South,  very  much  more.  Gentlemen,  we 
let  Gog  get  upon  the  Ark;  we  took  pay  for  his 
passage.  Our  most  prominent  men  in  Church  and 
State  have  sworn  allegiance  to  Gog.  But  this  is 
not  always  to  last ;  there  is  a  day  after  to-day  —  a 
Forever  behind  each  to-day. 

The  North  should  to  have  fought  Slavery  at  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and  at  every  step 
since ;  after  the  battle  was  lost  then,  we  should 
have  resisted  each  successive  step  of  the  Slave 
Power.  But  we  have  yielded  —  yielded  continually. 
We  made  no  fight  over  the  annexation  of  slave 
territory,  the  admission  of  slave  States.  We  ought 
to  have  rent  the  Union  into  the  primitive  townships 
sooner  than  consent  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 
But  as  we  failed  to  fight  manfully  then,  I  never 
thought  the  North  would  rally  on  the  Missouri 
Compromise  line.  I  rejoice  at  the  display  of  indig- 
nation I  witness  here  and  elsewhere.  For  once  New 
York  appears  more  moral  than  Boston.  I  thank 
you  for  it.  A  meeting  is  called  in  the  Park  to- 
morrow. It  is  high  time ;  though  I  doubt  that  the 
North  will  yet  rally  and  defend  even  the  line  drawn 
in  1820.  But  there  are  two  lines  of  defence  where 
the  Nation  will  pause,  I  think  —  the  seizure  and 
occupation  of  Cuba,  with  its  war  so  destructive  to 


432  CONDITION   OF  AMERICA. 

Northern  ships ;  and  the  restoration  of  the  African 
slave-trade.  The  slave-breeding  States,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  will  op- 
pose the  last ;  for  if  the  Gulf  States  and  the  future 
tropical  territories  can  import  Africans  at  one  hun- 
dred dollars  a  head,  depend  upon  it,  that  will  spoil 
the  market  for  the  slave-breeders  of  America.  And, 
gentlemen,  if  Virginia  cannot  sell  her  own  children, 
how  will  this  "well-born,  well-educated,  well-bred 
aristocrat"  look  down  on  the  poor  and  ignorant 
Yankee,  when  the  "  gentlemen  "  of  the  Old  Domin- 
ion do  not  bring  a  high  price  in  the  flesh-market. 
No,  this  iniquity  is  not  to  last  forever!  A  certain 
amount  of  force  will  compress  a  cubic  foot  of  water 
into  nine  tenths  of  its  natural  size ;  but  beyond  that, 
the  weight  of  the  whole  earth  cannot  make  it  any 
smaller.  Even  the  North  is  not  infinitely  compressi- 
ble. When  atom  touches  atom,  you  may  take  off" 
the  screws. 

Things  cannot  continue  long  in  this  condition. 
Every  triumph  of  Slavery  is  a  day's  march  towards 
its  ruin.  There  is  no  Higher  Law,  is  there  ?  "  He 
taketh  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness."  "  The 
council  of  the  wicked  is  carried,"  —  aye,  but  it  is 
carried  headlong. 

Only  see  what  a  change  has  come  over  our  spirit 
just  now.  Three  years  ago,  Isaiah  Eynders  and 
Hiram  Ketchum  domineered  over  New  York.  Those 
gentlemen  who  are  to  follow  me,  and  whom  you  are 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  433 

impatient  to  hear,  were  mobbed  down  in  this  city, 
two  years  ago ;  they  could  not  find  a  hall  which 
would  be  leased  to  them  for  money  or  love,  and  had 
to  adjourn  to  Syracuse  to  hold  their  convention. 
Look  at  this  assembly  now. 

A  little  while  ago  all  the  leading  clergymen  were 
in  favor  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ;  now  three 
thousand  of  New  England's  ministers  remonstrate 
against  Nebraska.  They  know  there  is  a  fire  in 
their  rear,  and,  in  theological  language,  it  is  a  fire 
that  "  is  not  quenched ; "  it  goeth  not  out  by  day  ; 
and  there  is  no  night  there.  The  clergymen  stand 
between  eternal  torment  on  one  side,  and  the  "  little 
giant  of  Slavery  "  on  the  other.  They  do  not  turn 
back!  Two  thousand  English  clergymen  once  be- 
came non-conformists  in  a  single  day.  Three  thou- 
sand New  England  ministers  remonstrated  against 
the  enslavement  of  Nebraska.  When  the  "  gentle- 
men of  the  Old  Dominion "  find  their  sons  and 
daughters  do  not  bring  a  high  price  in  the  flesh- 
markets  of  the  South,  they  will  doubt  the  "  divinity 
of  Slavery." 

Now  is  the  time  to  push  and  be  active,  call  meet- 
ings, bring  out  men  of  all  parties,  all  forms  of  re- 
ligion ;  agitate,  agitate,  agitate.  Make  a  fire  in  the 
rear  of  the  Government  and  the  representatives. 
The  South  is  weak  —  only  united.  The  North  is 
strong  in  money,  in  men,  in  education,  in  the  justice 
of  our  great  cause  —  only  not  united  for  freedom. 

VOL.  I.  37 


434  CONDITION   OF   AMERICA. 

Be  faithful  to  ourselves  and  Slavery  will  come  down, 
not  slowly,  as  I  thought  once,  but  when  the  people 
of  the  North  say  so,  it  shall  come  down  with  a 
great  crash ! 

Then  when  we  are  free  from  this  plague-spot  of 
Slavery  —  the  curse  to  our  industry,  our  education, 
our  politics,  and  our  religion  —  we  shall  increase 
more  rapidly  in  numbers  and  still  more  abundantly 
be  rich.  The  South  will  be  as  the  North  —  active, 
intelligent  —  Virginia  rich  as  New  York,  the  Caro- 
linas  as  active  as  Massachusetts.  Then,  by  peace- 
ful purchase,  the  Anglo-Saxon  may  acquire  the  rest 
of  this  North  American  Continent,  —  for  the  Span- 
iards will  make  nothing  of  it.  Nay,  we  may  honor- 
ably go  further  South,  and  possess  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  slopes  of  the  Southern  continent,  extending 
the  area  of  Freedom  at  every  step.  We  may  carry 
thither  the  Anglo-Saxon  vigor  and  enterprise,  the 
old  love  of  liberty,  the  love  also  of  law;  the  best 
institutions  of  the  present  age  —  ecclesiastical,  politi- 
cal, social,  domestic. 

Then  what  a  nation  we  shall  one  day  become^ 
America,  the  mother  of  a  thousand  Anglo-Saxon 
States,  tropic  and  temperate,  on  both  sides  the 
Equator,  may  behold  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ama- 
zon uniting  their  waters,  the  drainage  of  two  vast 
continents  in  the  Mediterranean  of  the  Western 
World ;  may  count  her  children  at  last  by  hundreds 
of  millions  —  and  among  them  all  behold  no  tyrant 


CONDITION   OF   AMERICA.  435 

and  no  slave  !  What  a  spectacle  —  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Family  occupying  a  whole  hemisphere,  with 
industry,  freedom,  religion  I  It  is  our  function  to 
fulfil  this  vision ;  we  are  the  voluntary  instruments 
of  God.  Shall  America  scorn  the  mission  He 
sends  her  on  ?  Then  let  us  all  perish,  and  may 
Russia  teach  justice  to  mankind  ! 


END    OF    VOL.    I. 


WORKS   BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


A  Discourse  of  Matters  Pertainikg  to  Religion. 
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A_N  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament.    From  the 
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Massachusetts  Quarterly  Review,  1848-50.     3  vols 
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A  Sermon  of  Old  Age.     (1854.) 15 

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The  Moral  Dangers  Incident  to  Prosperity.  (1855.)  15 

Consequences  of  an  Immoral  Principle.     (1855.)     .  15 

Function  of  a  Minister.    (1855.) 20 


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